He began his life in Bangkok, grew up in the US mountains of eastern Washington state and died while coming home to his family in the worst train accident in the New York transit agency’s history.
In between, Robert Dirks, 36, impacted lives of both those he knew and many he didn't. A scientist for DE Shaw Research, he created mathematical computer models of organic molecules to develop new pharmaceuticals. He was a husband, a father of two, and the son of a former American-expat English teacher and Chinese-Thai bank employee.
In this aerial photo, personnel from various agencies work the scene of a deadly commuter train accident in Valhalla, New York Feb 4. The packed Metro-North Railroad train slammed into a SUV on the tracks and erupted into flames Tuesday night, killing some and injuring others, sending hundreds of passengers scrambling for safety, authorities said. (AP photo)
"In the end, he always just wanted to be with his family, no matter what they were doing," his brother, William Dirks, 38, told New York's Newsday in a phone interview from his of Portland, Oregon home.
Dirks was just a year old when his father, Mike, and mother, Suree, moved from Bangkok to Canada's British Columbia, before eventually settling in Washington state — first in Vancouver, then Spokane in the early 1980s. Mike would go back to being a math teacher and his mother would take up work at a department store.
There they would raise the two boys, with Robert going on to become high-school valedictorian, earn bachelor's degrees in chemistry and mathematics, and obtain a PhD for the design and engineering of nucleic-acid devices at the California Institute of Technology, according to the Spokane Spokesman-Review.
He joined DE Shaw in 2006, where developed "novel computational chemistry methods" for new drugs, according to the firm's website.
"Robert was a brilliant scientist who made tremendous contributions to our own research, and to the broader scientific community," his employer said Thursday in n statement e-mailed to Bloomberg News.
He was headed home to his wife Christine Ueda and children Owen, 5, and Phoebe, 2, in Chappaqua, New York, Feb 3 when his Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metro-North commuter train slammed into a Mercedes-Benz sports-utility vehicle stopped on the tracks in Valhalla, New York. Four others also were killed in the fiery crash, The Associated Press reported.
"It was just so incredible that this happened," William Dirks told Newsday. "He wasn't a risk-taker. He was just going to work. He used to go to work really, really early ... so he could come home and play with his kids before they went to bed every night."
Suree and Mike Dirks were scheduled to arrive in New York Friday to for his funeral and console their daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
"For a guy that was so achievement-oriented, and he always wanted to be the best," his father told Bloomberg News. "It was amazing that he would be so patient with his kids."