Origin of the Hormone Action Gordon Research Conference

Abstract

Like a pearl, the Hormone Action Conference began as a result of an irritation. In the summer of 1967, I was invited to give the first talk (on methods to measure protein and nucleic acid synthesis rates, what was called “molecular biology” in those days) at a Gordon Conference that I won't specify for obvious reasons. As the week progressed, I found that the program was not one very close to my own interests and experience; in short, I got pretty bored. So my mind wandered back to a Gatlinberg Conference on effects of hormones a few years earlier (organized, I think, by Frank Kenney), and I wondered why something like that wasn't offered on the Gordon Conference program. Certainly that would be much more interesting, at least from my point of view. Then as now it was customary for the Executive Director of the GRCs to visit each meeting site each week. In contrast to popular belief, Alex Cruickshank has not been Executive Director since the Conferences first started in 1931. In fact, it was Alex's predec...