Obituary: John T. Shepherd, MD, MChir., DSc.

Abstract

Cardiovascular physiology has lost a great researcher and gentleman, a pioneer during the second half of the twentieth century ![Graphic][1] John T. Shepherd John T. Shepherd died in Rochester, Minnesota, on 4 October 2011, after a long illness. With his death, physiology lost a physician scientist who contributed much to the field of cardiovascular medicine and the scientific community. His friends and colleagues will remember his gentle humour, engaging intellect, and humanitarian qualities. John Shepherd was born on 21 May 1919 in Northern Ireland and was an alumnus of Queens University in Belfast, where he completed his clinical training and became a physiologist of the peripheral circulation. A Fulbright Scholarship brought him for the first time to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, to work as a postdoctoral fellow with another legend in cardiovascular physiology, Dr Earl Wood. Both his unconditional attachment to Mayo and his passion for haemodynamic investigations stem from that first stay in Rochester. Indeed, although he returned to Northern Ireland after his Fulbright Scholarship and even spent some time in Paris (he loved to reminisce about his French experiences!), he returned to the Department of Physiology at the Mayo Clinic in 1957, where he pursued the rest of his brilliant career. He was an extraordinary man at the service of that remarkable institution. He became American, but he remained so British. … Many years later, Dr Shepherd was invited back to Queens University in Belfast to receive an honorary degree, a very special recognition, as universities only exceptionally bestow such honour on one of their own alumni. At … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif