Winston J. Durant, ASHP past president, dies at 84

Abstract

Winston J. Durant, who served as ASHP president during 1969–70, died October 31 at the age of 84 years. Durant’s pharmacy career spanned 35 years, including 12 years as pharmacy director at the institution now known as the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. His legacy there includes the creation of a modern hospital pharmacy practice and the establishment of an administrative pharmacy residency program that prepares pharmacists for leadership roles in health systems. “We call him the founder of Wisconsin Hospital pharmacy,” said Thomas Thielke, a former graduate student of Durant’s who later served nearly two decades as pharmacy director for the health system. “He really established the department of pharmacy as the cutting edge.” One of Durant’s first tasks when he came to Wisconsin in 1959 was to find and remove expired medications from the hospital, some of them dating to World War II. In a written account of his career provided to ASHP, Durant said this process took a year. Some outdated products were returned to their manufacturers, but three truckloads of material that manufacturers would not accept had to be taken to a landfill for disposal.