Scientist and Philanthropist William D. Redfield Dies at 77

Prominent Orange County scientist and philanthropist William D. Redfield died of cancer Tuesday at his Fullerton home. He was 77.

Redfield, who in 1947 began a 38-year career with Chevron Oil Field Research in La Habra, published research with colleague Sol Silverman on the interaction between bacteria and carbon isotopes that is considered classic in the field.

His devotion to science showed most recently in 1990, when he and his wife, Elaine, set up a trust fund valued at more than $100,000 to provide a fellowship for molecular biology and biochemistry graduate students at UC Irvine.

Beyond their support of scientific research, the Redfields were also known for their support of the arts community in Orange County.

They were founding members of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and longtime boosters of the Orange County Philharmonic Society. In fact, the couple met through the society.

Redfield’s first wife, Hannah, worked as assistant treasurer of the society in its early days. After she died in 1965, he began courting Elaine, widow of the society’s original treasurer, Edward Mittelman. The two married in 1967.

Redfield was born in Portland, Ore., on July 26, 1915, and attended Reed College in Oregon before transferring to UCLA. After graduating from there in 1939, he went on to earn a master’s degree in science in 1940 and, five years later, a doctorate in microbiology from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla.

In addition to his wife, Redfield is survived by his two children, Nancy Tracy of Yorba Linda and David Charles Redfield of Rancho Penasquitos in San Diego County, and three grandchildren, Michelle Robyn Tracy of Yorba Linda and Aaron and Danielle Reich of Rancho Penasquitos.

Visitation will be held at McAulay & Wallace Mortuary, 902 N. Harbor Blvd. in Fullerton on Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. Interment will take place Friday at 11 a.m. at Pacific View Memorial Park, 3500 Pacific View Drive in Newport Beach.

The family has asked that contributions be made to the Orange County Philharmonic Society, the Orange County Performing Arts Center, the William D. Redfield Fellowship Fund at UC Irvine or the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles.