Although she was born Lili-Charlotte Dreyfus in Germany, Lolo Sarnoff is proud of having been born a Swiss citizen. Lolo's nickname is an early gift from her older brother, Richard, who had been promised a brother, not a sister, by their mother. In anger and disappointment he decided "Lolo" was enough of a name. In a short while he turned out to be the best brother imaginable.

Lolo graduated from the Reimann Art School in Berlin. Mr. Reimann realizing that the world was changing–the Holocaust would soon eradicate his life forever–he accelerated the studies so that Lolo's class graduated in 1936, one year ahead of schedule, the last class to graduate. Lolo's great dream to be a fashion designer has never been realized.

After the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Lolo's mother moved with Lolo to Switzerland. However, Lolo decided to study history of art in Florence, Italy at the Florence University, from 1936 to 1938. Before obtaining a degree, Lolo married Stephen D. Heineman, doctoral student at the University of Zurich.

Back in Switzerland, Lolo joined the Swiss Red Cross Motor Corps and drove trucks loaded with goods directed to cities being built into the mountains, a Swiss precaution, in case of an invasion by Hitler, who was conquering Central Europe.

In 1940 Lolo's husband was drafted and called back to America, as were all young Americans at home or abroad. Not being allowed to join the Red Cross Motor Corps, due to the fact that she was a neutral, Lolo joined the Red Cross Nursing Corps and graduated from Bellevue Hospital, New York, in their first class in 1942.

While serving as a Red Cross Nurse at Bellevue Hospital Lolo met her future husband, Dr. Stanley J. Sarnoff, whom she married in 1948. Dr. Sarnoff was an Intern training to become a surgeon, following his father's foot-steps. But already in 1943, fresh out of Johns' Hopkins Medical School, Stanley's interests were directed toward research, where Lolo, against all hospital rules, had her first chance to assist him.

Stanley started his scientific career in Boston as Assistant Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, after taking his surgical boards, only to please his father. After moving to Boston, Stanley introduced his wife to serious research at the Harvard School of Public Health. The Dean very graciously bestowed the title of Research Assistant to Lolo, which started her scientific career.

Lolo became Stanley's assistant and worked with him on many research projects, continuing to work while also caring for the couple's two children, Daniela (1951) and Robert (1953).

Together Lolo and Stanley co-invented the Electro-Phrenic Respirator, a device which replaced the iron lung in the treatment of Bulbar Polio. This device was first tested on Lolo in the lab and later saved Daniela's life who had been stricken with this deadly disease.

In 1954 Dr. Sarnoff was asked by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish a new section of the National Heart Insititute–Cardiovascular Physiology. The Director of the National Heart Institute offered Lolo, then referred to as L. Charlotte, a job in Stanley's lab with the title of Research Associate. Finally, Lolo obtained her own lab, with her own assistant.

Stanley's new interest in circulation, a field removed from the lung and artificial respiration, gave Lolo the chance to broaden her horizon. Lolo co-authored several scientific papers with her husband and was accepted by the scientific world. In 1962 she was selected to be included in the American Men of Science.

Lolo sadly resigned from N.I.H. in 1959 to help Stanley start his own company–at that time called Rodana Research Corporation–a combination of the children's names. Later this company grew into Survival Technology, Inc., a public company specializing in automatic injectors filled with an antidote against nerve gas warfare, and the Cardio-Beeper, a device used to monitor emergency heart attack alerts.

Lolo was Rodana's first President until 1961 when Stanley resigned from the N.I.H. and took over the management himself. At this point in the early sixties, Lolo decided to become a hausfrau and full-time mother.

Staying home did not mean staying idle. Lolo devoted her time to community endeavors, helping to establish the "The Foreign Students Service Council," co-founding the Washington Performing Arts Society Women's Committee, the Washington Opera Women's Committee, joining the fledgling Corcoran Women's Committee, and becoming a trustee of the National Ballet.

In 1967, Lolo became fascinated by fiber optics which entered her life by chance and guided her to become the artist she had dreamed about since graduating from the Reimann School thirty years earlier. She was one of the first to combine the use of the medium with plexiglas to make light sculptures.

Prolific and diverse, Lolo has had exhibitions of her artwork both nationally and internationally since 1969, and a number of her pieces grace private and public collections all over the world.

Lolo's favorite piece, The Flame, has been located at the Kennedy Center's Opera House, first tier, since the Kennedy Center opened in 1971. The Flame remains the only sculpture at the Kennedy Center not dedicated by a foreign government, except the portraits of Presidents Kennedy and Eisenhower.

In 1986, while a trustee at the Art Barn, which she helped found, Lolo was contacted by one of the N.I.H.'s Directors to inquire if she would be interested in teaching art to Alzheimers' who were spending six months at the N.I.H. The new art program was an immediate success which continued for the duration of the patients' stay at the N.I.H.

Soon thereafter in 1988, Lolo and three other trustees resigned from the Art Barn board to form Arts For The Aging, Inc. (AFTA) (www.aftaarts.org). Since founding AFTA, Lolo has served as its President. She is quick to give the credit for AFTA's extraordinary success to her staff, the artists who teach AFTA's classes, the AFTA Trustees, and her many friends who support AFTA.

At Dr. Sarnoff's death in 1990, his will named The Stanley J. Sarnoff Endowment For Cardiovascular Science, Inc. (www.SarnoffEndowment.org), the principal beneficiary of his estate. Lolo became an Honorary Trustee and continues to advise and host an annual gathering for the Sarnoff Fellows and Scholars. The foundation is comprised by 195 Fellows and 27 Scholars.

After 43 years of sharing her life with Stanley, it was difficult for her to be alone. Making the loss even more painful was the death of their 12 year old Rottweiler, Koka, who died in 1991. While spending the summer in Vermont, Lolo began to search for a new companion, preferably a toy poodle. However, she rescued an exceptional Chesapeake Bay Retriever from death row. Dara has become her beloved and devoted, if somewhat opinionated, companion.

With Dara's help and insight, Lolo once again lent her hand to a new philanthropic endeavor by setting up Dara's Canine Foundation, Inc.. Dara explains the trials and tribulations of a stray in her own book, (as transcribed with Lolo's help) called Dara: Autobiography of a Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

Sadly, Dara passed away in June 2004.

At present, when Lolo is not running AFTA and not working in her studio, Lolo and her new canine companion, Chessie, escape to their home in Vermont, where her son, Robert, resides together with his wife Tricia and four children; and where Lolo's daughter, Dana now resides.

Robert, Lolo and Daniela