OxMed14 Jul 2012 RRG GBedit FINAL_Layout 1 26/07/2012 14:57 Page 14
14 / OXFORD MEDICINE . JULY 2012
John Burke b. 1922, q. 1951, Harvard Medical School, died on 2 November 2011 from pancreatic cancer. Visiting professor and scholar at Balliol College 1990–91. John Gask b. March 1915, matric. Trinity 1933, q. 1939, d. 7th February 2012 aged 96. John Campbell MacDonald matric.1960 q. 1967, d. 21 February 2012 aged 70, after a struggle with cancer. A retired cardiologist, he was a strong and good friend of the Cardiac Inherited Disease Group in New Zealand, helping to investigate families with inherited heart disease, and families with a victim of sudden death at a young age. Even as a senior physician he was interested in and stimulated by the new developments in this field. His very British and very dry sense of humour will be sorely missed. CIDG members offer sincere sympathy to John's family, friends and close colleagues in Palmerston North. Stephen McGow an b. 1965; matric. Magdalen 1984, q. 1990. Died March 2011, aged 46 after a fall. Former consultant in general adult psychiatry at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Dr McGowan won a scholarship from school in Newcastle to read medicine at Magdalen and entered the Oxford senior house officer scheme in psychiatry, followed by a Medical Research Council clinical training fellowship in neuroimaging in schizophrenia at the cyclotron unit at the Hammersmith Hospital, London, as a member of Paul Grasby’s team. He completed his training by joining the Bethlem and Maudsley senior registrar rotation. Stephen was lucky to survive a nearly fatal skiing accident in the Alps, from which he made a full recovery. In 2003 he was appointed as a consultant psychiatrist in Lambeth, where he held a combined inpatient and community post in the adult service. Stephen was much appreciated by his patients, students, and trainees; his colleagues remember his great sense of humour and enjoyment of life as well as his commitment to work and willingness to give time to others. Matthias Paneth, (universally known as MP), b. 30th April 1921, matric. Christ Church 1940; d. 1 September 2011, aged 90, after a brief illness. Former cardio thoracic surgeon. He was born in Amsterdam where his father, a doctor, was on a course in tropical medicine. The family then departed to Sumatra where Paneth senior was Medical Officer to a Dutch rubber plantation. MP was sent to Gordonstoun School, and then went up to Christ Church, to read Medicine.. On completion of his undergraduate training he served short stints as a houseman and senior house officer at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, the Royal Cancer Hospital and the Hammersmith Hospital. On moving to the Brompton Hospital he was house surgeon to Lord Russell Brock and Oswald Tubbs. For almost 30 years he strode the corridors and wards of the Brompton as an intellectual and professional giant. Matthias Paneth leaves behind his wife Shirley, daughters Claire and Sarah and two grandsons. In addition, countless numbers of cardiothoracic surgeons who were trained by him over the years owe a great debt of gratitude and consider it a privilege to have known him.
reader in physiology St George’s Medical School, London, drowned while swimming in the sea in Croatia. Paul was one of the original academic staff, appointed in 1976, to the newly built medical school of St George’s. He was a respiratory physiologist whose research centred on mucus secretion from the airways. He developed avian and mammalian models to study this and introduced his techniques to many research students. He was on the editorial board of the Journal of Physiology from 1974 to 1978. He was an excellent lecturer, and being a man of patience and kindness, always had time to help those who asked. He was a good listener and a loyal friend. He leaves a wife, Susan, and four children (Giles, Alice, Adam, and Hannah) by his first wife, Hazel. Cyril Geoffrey Arthur Thomas b. 1924, matric. Balliol 1942, q. 1948, MA, FRCP, FRCPath, d. 17 January 2012 aged 87. Former consultant microbiologist, Norfolk and Norwich Hospitals .Cyril Thomas became a medical student at Balliol College in 1942. Most of the students were there for only a few months before being drafted into the armed forces, and the remainder were mainly engaged in secret wartime activities. His own career at Oxford included exploring the roofs of Oxford with Tom Bourdillon (who, according to plan, should have been the first man to conquer Mount Everest), to making up a four man Balliol crew to take a full sized Oxford punt through the Carfax drain. He qualified in 1948, the first year of the NHS. In 1949, he married Dr Barbara Porritt, their best man was fellow student, Oliver Smithies, who shared the Nobel prize for medicine in 2007 for his work on genetics. He retired in 1988 and devoted most of his time to his three main interests: medical education, travel by train, and his pet tortoises. In 2003 he was delighted to see his initials “CGAT” on the new (2003) £2 coin, celebrating the discovery of the structure of the double helix of DNA 50 years earlier. He leaves his beloved wife Barbara, a retired anaesthetist (whom he always called “Porritt”); a son and daughter; and four grandchildren. His other daughter, Elizabeth, predeceased him.
Derek Randal Richard b. 1924, matric. Worcester 1943, q. BM BCh 1949, died 3rd January 2012, aged 88.
Antony John Wing b. 2nd May 1933, m. Lincoln and St. Thomas’s Hospital Medical School q. BM BCh 1958 d. 13 January 2012. In his final undergraduate year he had the good fortune to be an eye witness in May 1954 when Roger Bannister broke the four minute mile in Oxford. A gifted sportsman at both cricket and rugby, he was captain of rugby, winning the Hospitals Cup. In 1964 he was posted to RAF Halton for six months, it was at Halton that Tony began his lifelong commitment to nephrology. His Oxford DM thesis was based on work done in the dialysis unit on calcium fluxes in order to determine the most appropriate concentration of dialysate calcium. He devoted the next 24 years to developing and maintaining the renal unit at Lambeth and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. He gave prolonged and innovative service to the ERAEDTA Regi stry from 1974 to 1986, Chairman from 1976 to 1983. For ten years he was a key figure internationally providing reliable and incisive analysis of regular dialysis and transplantation throughout Europe. Throughout his career as an academic nephrologist, Tony remained above all a clinician. In 1994, towards the end of his career, he was invited to move to St George’s Hospital Tooting, only a few miles south of St Thomas’s, to spearhead the development of a new academic renal unit; this he achieved with great skill and hard work. He retired in 1997. Tony was a charming and thoughtful man, who had about him a real and winning humility.
Paul Sebastian Richardson b. 1942, matric. New College 1962, q. BM BCH 1968, DM 1974, d. 11 October 2011, aged 69. Former
M artine Geoffrey Malcolm Venables b. 1922, m. Magdalen 1941, q BM BCh 1948, d. 2012 General Practitioner, Belper, Derbyshire.
Thomas Wentw orth Price b. 1912, matric Keble 1939, q. BM BCh 1945, d. 12 April 2012 aged 92.