The Associated Press on Tuesday reported that Capecchi's oft-told stories cannot be corroborated by documents in Italy and Germany. But U. officials pointed out that Capecchi endured history's bloodiest conflict as a child between the ages of 3 and 8 and many of his disputed recollections were based on the words of now-dead family members, rather than firsthand experiences.
"We remain extremely proud of what Mario has accomplished, which is all the more remarkable considering what he overcame as a child in wartime Italy," U. President Michael Young said. "While some of his precise memories are questioned by AP . . . the essence of his story remains intact."
Capecchi was unavailable for an interview Tuesday but did release a statement.
"What I have said and written is my most accurate recollection of my early childhood," Capecchi said. "My recollections are based on my own memory and that of my uncle, who also was a scientist and was prone to understatement, and the memories of my mother, who purposely provided few details because she wanted to forget that period."
Last month, the Nobel Foundation awarded Capecchi, along with two other researchers, the world's most prestigious academic prize for their pioneering discoveries in molecular genetics. The first-ever Nobel awarded to a Utah scientist, Capecchi's achievement has elevated the U.'s stature as a bastion for groundbreaking research, particularly in genetics.
His colleagues feared that the AP's challenges to Capecchi's credibility, coming out only a month before the Nobel prizes are handed out in Stockholm, could stain the public's perception of his scientific achievements.
"It's totally irrelevant to Mario as a person and as a scientist," said Gordon Lark, the former biology department head who hired Capecchi away from Harvard University in 1973. "He is an incredibly wonderful person, which has nothing to do with how he grew up in Italy."
The latest development in the U.'s remarkable Nobel story perhaps says more about the nature of childhood memories touched by traumatic events than it does about the character of Utah's most famous scientist, according to Capecchi's colleagues.
"There's no dispute that he endured extraordinary hardships as a child," Young said. "Whether his mother was in Dachau or some other prison in Munich, or whether he spent three weeks with his father or three months, seems of little moment in light of this. His story is one not only of exceptional scientific achievement, but of remarkable triumph of the human spirit."
Young pointed out that no one challenged the crucial aspects of Capecchi's childhood stories: that his mother was arrested for her political activism and he lived episodically with his father, an Italian military pilot, after being turned out of a foster family's home during the war.
"Mario has also never exploited that story," Young said. "He always focused on his work. His goal is to cure cancer, not write the million-dollar best-seller. He is more than prepared to learn about the details of his life."
Capecchi's statement offered two points of clarification on the AP article.
"First, while the story questions Dr. Capecchi's recollection that his mother was shipped to the Dachau concentration camp, it also makes clear that she indeed was detained and probably deported to Germany," it stated.
"Second, the story questions whether Dr. Capecchi wandered the streets of wartime Italy as a child because of documents indicating he was taken to live with his father. He says he has always acknowledged spending a few weeks with his father, but that he also did wander the streets for most of the time after his mother was taken away."
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* BRIAN MAFFLY can be reached at bmaffly@sltrib.com or 801-257-8605.
