John N. Whitaker, MD

Abstract

John N. Whitaker, MD, Chairman of the Neurology Department at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) died on August 29, 2001 at age 60. John was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated magna cum laude from Hendrix College. In 1965, he earned his medical degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine. Following a medicine internship, he obtained neurology training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and then served as a Clinical Associate in the Medical Neurology Branch at NIH under the tutelage of Dr. W. King Engel. After a short tenure on the Neurology Faculty at the University of Minnesota, he joined the Neurology Department at the University of Tennessee in Memphis and was soon named Chairman of that Department. In 1985, he came to UAB, where he served as Chairman of the Neurology Department until his untimely death. John N. Whitaker When John came to UAB, it was clear that he had extraordinary administrative skills and leadership abilities. He built what is now a preeminent neurology program, nationally …