Wayne Keith Osborn of Petersburg, Michigan, died of complications due to lupus and heart disease on March 17th. He was 79.

Born on September 27th, 1944 in Toledo, Ohio to Marjorie and Harry Osborn, he graduated with a degree in chemistry from BGSU in 1968. He worked for several years in Karlsruhe, West Germany doing developmental work in nuclear energy. He also lived and worked in France, Saudi Arabia, Iran and throughout the Far East, employed as a chemist in the development of oilfield production chemicals, by Dowell Schlumberger, an international division of the Dow Chemical Company. He was an avid photographer, writer, and advocate of science.

In 1981 he was diagnosed with terminal lupus nephritis. He volunteered as an experimental patient at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. After 2 years of treatment he was in general remission and remained so for the next 28 years.

In 1988 he joined Spartan Chemical Company of Maumee where he worked as a developmental chemist. He contributed to the creation of numerous new products and reformulated several existing ones to be more environmentally friendly.

In 1997 he founded Summit Properties, which rehabbed houses in Toledo, Ohio and provided home ownership to low-income families. He was a member of the Better Business Bureau of Northwest Ohio and was known as a fair and compassionate landlord and businessman.

He was a devoted advocate of peace, justice and environmental issues, and was formally on the steering committee of the Justice and Peace Center at Lord’s College as well as a member of the Sierra Club and the ACLU. He was a member and donor to the Toledo Museum of Art and the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, Friends Committee.

He was an avid sailor, and loved the water. He owned and sailed various vessels in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and the Great Lakes. He was past Commander of the Toledo Sail and Power Squadron, a unit of the United States Power Squadron. He earned the the grade of Senior Navigator, the highest educational achievement of the national organization.

He was a wonderful father and instilled in his children, by example, the values of honesty, compassion, work-ethic, curiosity, and travel. He was a great lover of literature, and always had his nose in a book, thirsty for what more he could learn.

He was a man of the world, traveling frequently throughout his life having visited or lived in more than 20 countries. He could speak German, Arabic, and Spanish. He took his wife and two boys on several journeys to faraway lands, including Costa Rica, the Galapagos Islands, and the Greek Islands.

He is survived by his wife of over 40 years, Linda Osborn, his sons Alexander (Sydney) and Aaron (Krista) Osborn, stepsons Gerald (Lana) and Craig Tipton, granddaughter Vienna Tipton, and his two beloved grandsons Dexter Wayne Osborn and Asher Thomas Osborn.