John T. Shepherd (1919–2011)

Abstract

John T. Shepherd, MD, a visionary physiologist who headed the American Heart Association, served as a NASA adviser and led US scientific exchanges with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, died 4 October 2011 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He was 92. Over the course of his career he received many awards, including honorary degrees from the Universities of Bologna, Ghent and Queens (Belfast). He was actively involved with NASA and the US National Academy of Sciences, and chaired the academy's Committee on Space Medicine from 1965 to 1974. During the Cold War, he helped the US space program by working with colleagues in the then-Soviet Union on space physiology. He was president of the American Heart Association in 1975–76. He was also a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He was elected a Member of The Physiological Society in 1951 and elected to the Committee in 1957 (Fig. 1). Figure 1 Professor John T. Shepherd (1919–2011) Professor Shepherd made major contributions to understanding the regulation of the cardiovascular system, producing more than 300 scientific publications and four books. His research spanned a number of areas related to cardiovascular control including classic studies on reflex control of the circulation, haemodynamic responses to heat stress and exercise, and mechanisms of vasodilation. Depending on the question, he conducted studies in normal humans, patients with specific diseases, animal models and isolated tissues. Many of his studies from the 1950s, 60s and 70s are considered foundational and still cited today: Duff et al. (1953), Roddie et al. (1956, 1957), Marshall et al. (1961), Donald & Shepherd (1963), Corcondilas et al. (1964), Bevegard & Shepherd (1966), Strandell & Shepherd (1967), Vanhoutte & Shepherd (1973) and Mancia et al. (1976). The concept of ‘translational’ research that is in vogue today was inherently obvious to John Shepherd throughout his long career. His scientific work was also the platform that facilitated the training of more than 100 research fellows. John Shepherd was born 21 May 1919 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and received his MB, BCh, MChir and MD with honours from Queens University in Belfast. He completed his internship and residency at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. He joined the academic staff at Queens in the Department of Physiology. In 1953, he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to come to Mayo Clinic for 1 year to engage in cardiovascular research. The selection of Mayo Clinic was based on his brother's enthusiasm after reading The Doctors Mayo in the late 1940s. He returned to Northern Ireland. His four close colleagues in the Department of Physiology at Queen's University (Greenfield, Roddie, Glover and Whelan) later became deans of medical schools around the world. In 1957 he joined the Mayo staff where he spent the rest of his professional career. In addition to his cutting edge scientific work, Professor Shepherd also had exceptional leadership skills and led the transformation of the Mayo Clinic from a group practice of medicine to a group practice embedded in a world class academic medical centre which included a medical school, graduate school and broad based research programmes. He was director of research from 1969 to 1976. In this position, and as a member of the Mayo Board of Trustees, he was instrumental in enabling Mayo Clinic to become a degree-granting institution in 1972. He became director for education of the Mayo Foundation and dean of the new Mayo Medical School from 1977 to 1983. This included responsibility for the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine and Mayo School of Health-Related Sciences. From 1983 to 1988, Dr Shepherd chaired the Mayo Board of Development and was actively involved in establishment of the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, FL. He retired from Mayo Clinic in 1989. In 2003, he published a memoir, Inside the Mayo Clinic. He was also one of more than 15 physicians in his family, including his daughter and his son who is on the staff at Mayo Clinic. His grandson and namesake is a Mayo Medical Student and participating in physiology research. Dr Shepherd is survived by his second wife, Marion, a son and a daughter, four step-children, five grandchildren, eight step-grandchildren and a great-grandson. ‘As I look back on my fifty years at Mayo Clinic and Foundation, I am astonished at its metamorphosis beyond what William Worrall Mayo, and particularly his sons, Charles Horace Mayo and William James Mayo, first envisioned,’ Shepherd wrote in his memoirs. ‘I am also gratified by my opportunities to play a part in that growth as a researcher, educator and partner in what is, arguably, the world's greatest medical group practice.’ For those of us who had an opportunity to work with him his superior intellect, great enthusiasm, endless energy, generosity and inclusive leadership style were remarkable.