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John R. Brobeck
April 12, 1914 - March 6, 2009
John R. Brobeck, MD, PhD, who served The American Physiological Society
as the Society’s 44th President from 1971-1972 died of pneumonia on March 6,
2009, at age 94.
A native of Steamboat Springs, Colorado,
Brobeck earned a bachelor’s degree from Wheaton (Illinois) College, where he
met his future wife, Dorothy Kellogg. After graduating from Wheaton
(Illinois) College in 1936, he spent three years at the Institute of
Neurology of Northwestern University in Chicago, where he received the Ph.D.
degree in 1939. He was then able to continue his education at the School of
Medicine at Yale University and was awarded an M.D. degree in March 1943. On
the first day of April he began an association with John Fulton's Laboratory
of Physiology at Yale that continued until 1952, when Brobeck moved to the
Philadelphia area as professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology
of the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. He was also
chairman of the Graduate Group Committee in Physiology. At that time the
university included also another department of physiology in the Graduate
School of Medicine. Julius Comroe had made it one of the strongest
departments in the country. In 1957, however, Comroe resigned from his
positions at Pennsylvania to take up his new responsibilities at the
University of California in San Francisco. Two years later, Robert Forster
became chairman of this department. Brobeck meanwhile held office in the
School of Medicine until 1970. He then resigned so that the two departments
could be brought together under Forster's direction. From 1970 until his
official retirement in 1982, Brobeck held the title of Herbert C. Rorer
Professor in the Medical Sciences. Then, for 10 years, he was
assistant to the vice president for health affairs. He was also Penn's
judicial administrator and served on several university committees.
Elected to membership in
APS in 1943, Brobeck's first assignment was as chairman of the Education
Committee in 1960. From 1963 to 1972 he served as chairman of the Editorial
Board of Physiological Reviews. He was elected to Council in 1967 and
became president elect in 1970. In 1980 he received the Ray G. Daggs Award.
Brobeck was editor or coeditor of several books, including one on the
history of the American Physiological Society.
In the chapter written in
the APS Centennial History about Brobeck, he indicated that his research
interests focused on the study of the control of energy exchange and energy
balance. Having learned from his own observations and the work of other
laboratories that stimulation or lesions of the hypothalamus may alter body
temperature regulation, food intake, body weight, or motor output, Brobeck
proposed integration of these several variables into patterns of energy
exchange. The basis for the integration was hypothesized to be thermal
signals. According to Brobeck, in adult animals this integration usually
leads to a balance between intake and expenditure and consequently to a
stable body weight.
Wheaton College, his alma mater, conferred
three honors on Brobeck: the Distinguished Service Award of the Alumni
Association (1953), a Centennial Award (1959), and the degree doctor of laws
(1960). In 1959 he received a Centennial Merit Award from Northwestern
University. He was a member of the American Society for Clinical
Investigation, the Halsted Society, the American Academy of Arts and Science
(1969), and the National Academy of Sciences (1975). In 1962-63 he and most
of his family, with a grant from the China Medical Board of New York, were
able to spend nine months at the National Defense Medical Center in Taipei,
Taiwan. They visited also the major medical centers in Korea, Hong Kong, the
Philippines, Bangkok, and New Delhi, India.
Colleagues remember him for his bow ties and
his commutes by bicycle from Swarthmore to Penn. A talented trombonist,
Brobeck played in a brass quintet in college and later played duets with his
wife, a pianist and organist. She died in November 2008. In addition to his
daughter, Brobeck is survived by his daughters Elizabeth Thompson and
Priscilla, his sons Stephen and John T., a sister; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service for Brobeck was held at
Aldan Union Church, 7 E. Providence Rd., Aldan, Pa. 19018. Memorial
donations may be made to the church organ fund.
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