Price, Floyd McMaster, Jr. (February 5, 1939—February 26, 2023)

In Fall 1957, Floyd Price, Jr. came to Grinnell from the small southwestern Nebraska village of Hayes Center. However, he was born in 1939 in Kansas City, Missouri to the Rev. Floyd M. Price and Rowena (Lindley) Price, who moved around a lot due to his father’s` being a United Church of Christ (UCC) preacher, resulting in his son getting to know different parts of the U.S.

When Floyd joined our class, he became a four-year member of Clark Hall, and a fellow classmate and Clark Hall resident recalls that Floyd was serious, quiet, dependable, solemn, gentle and a steady presence but always in the background.

That description also applies to his major extra-curricular activity as the manager of our varsity football team for four years. Floyd was the first person to arrive before every football practice and the last to leave after it was over. His duties included handling all the balls, dummies, jerseys and other equipment, assisting the student trainer with first aid and confirming hotel bookings for road trips. For games he handled kick-off and extra-point tees plus kept track of each player’s time on the field to determine his end-of-season eligibility for a varsity letter. In recognition of this service, the players after the end of the sophomore season made him an honorary member of Honor G, the men’s athletic club. (It should also be mentioned that for his first two years he was the manager of the varsity basketball team and that he served as a waiter in Cowles dining hall.)

Academically Floyd was a chemistry-zoology major, which was the basis for his B.A. degree in June 1961. Then it was on to the University of Nebraska to obtain a M.S. degree in physiology in 1963 and serve as a research associate at Nebraska’s Institute for Cell Research, 1963-64.

Next Floyd started a 31-year career at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, where he made major contributions to molecular cell biology. The focus for his work was studying mechanisms of carcinogenesis using tissue culture models. The results of much of his research proved that genetic predisposition to cancer is associated with deficient DNA repair. His research also contributed to the development of a potential assay (lab test to find and measure the amount of a specific substance) for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease. Floyd co-authored 60 scientific papers/articles during his career. In 1968 he was elected to membership in Sigma Xi (the Scientific Research Honor Society) and received the National Institute Health Quality Performance Award for his being the senior or co-author of 12 research articles about malignant transformation of mammalian cells in vitro.

After buying a house in Germantown, Maryland in 1984, Floyd saw a poster at a local grocery store advertising the town’s new UCC church (United Church of Christ of Seneca Valley). He immediately visited the church and became one of its charter members and served on its first Missions Board and Nominating Committee. He started the church’s first children’s choirs, the “Morning Stars” for very young singers and “Rainbow Singers” for older children. Over the years, he wrote several original songs for these church groups. Floyd enjoyed playing the recorder and sometimes offered special musical pieces for church services, particularly with other instrumentalists. He also sang bass in

the church choir and was generous in sharing his preferences for favorite hymns and choir music. He described the church, especially the choir, as his local family.

He often addressed his church friends with expressions of abiding love and gratitude for his fellow “children of God” and found hope and meaning in God and the sacred story. In his retirement, he started volunteering weekly in the church office (folding the bulletins for Sunday worship services). The office staff and pastors counted on Floyd and looked forward to seeing him each week for his gifts were numerous and his love and heart were huge.

Floyd also told friends that when in 1993 he fell and broke his neck, God was looking out for him by sending friends to check on him and then helping him to walk again when doctors had told him that he couldn’t walk again.

In Floyd’s final days his pastor asked what scripture he wanted read at his memorial service, and Floyd said the one about Jesus telling Peter to feed his sheep three times. Here is that passage (John 21: 15-17): “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” [Peter] said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time Jesus said to him, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” [Peter] said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” [Jesus] said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because [Jesus] said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And [Peter] said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.””

The pastor believes that this passage was chosen because “Floyd knew what it was to feed and to be fed. What a gift he was to us and we were to him. Feed my sheep lived out in real time.”

Price, who was unmarried, is survived by his beloved sister, Beatrice Price of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, many cousins in Pelzer, South Carolina and many friends and colleagues at Grinnell College, the University of Nebraska, the National Cancer Institute, the United Church of Christ of Seneca Valley and elsewhere. —Duane W. Krohnke