Michael Hudecki

Published August 2, 2016 This content is archived.

Michael S. Hudecki, a retired UB faculty member who conducted research on his own illness, died July 30 in his Getzville home. He was 72.

Born in Fort Bragg, N.C., Hudecki moved after World War II with his parents to Buffalo, where his father had studied dentistry at UB.

He studied biology at Niagara University, earning a bachelor’s degree with honors in 1965 and a master’s degree with a concentration in chromosome anomalies in 1967. He received a PhD in biology from UB in 1972.

He pursued postdoctoral research in muscle pathology because he and his youngest sister, Patricia, were afflicted with a type of inherited muscular dystrophy called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. When diagnosed as a boy, doctors said he might not survive his teenage years.

With a fellowship from the Muscular Dystrophy Association, Hudecki studied protein turnover in cultured muscle” Syracuse University.

He joined UB’s biology department as a research faculty member in 1977 with grant support from the MDA and National Institutes of Health. For the next 26 years, he developed and implemented animal models in the study of dystrophy pathogenesis and chemotherapy.

His lab soon became the national preclinical testing center for the MDA. During this time, Hudecki and his colleagues published nearly 50 papers in this area.

He also taught undergraduate courses, including nutrition, embryology, basic biology and “Perspectives in Human Biology,” a popular course for nonmajors.

He was the recipient of numerous awards, among them a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Award, an NIH Career Development Award, the George W. Thorn Award from the UB Alumni Association and an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, Niagara University. He also was inducted into the Signum Fidei Society of distinguished alumni at his high school, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute.

Hudecki retired from UB in 2006 as an emeritus research professor. He published his autobiography, “Three Roses: Living with Muscular Dystrophy and Marrying an Exceptional Woman,” late last year.