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Horace Willard
Davenport
(1912-2005) |
It’s impossible to say for
which of his accomplishments Horace W. Davenport, APS President 1961-1962,
will be most remembered. His progression through the years and his breadth
of interests were quite amazing.
But Davenport’s impact on APS was quick and long-lived, as the Society faced
a true crisis during his presidency. The collapse of the publishing board of
trustees required a revamping of APS finances and its publishing approach,
and the restructuring of the board of trustees into a publications
committee. During his tenure APS also purchased the Journal of
Neurophysiology, a prize that required delicate negotiations to win
over.
While active on many committees and Council before his presidency, afterward
Davenport served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of
Physiology and the Journal of Applied Physiology as well as the
Centennial Celebration, Honorary Membership and Senior Physiologists
Committees.
In addition to his contributions to APS, Davenport was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences in 1974 and had a long history of service to
the NSF, the NIH, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, and the
Office of Naval Research. He received numerous accolades, including the
Alumni Distinguished Service Award from the California Institute of
Technology in 1966, the Friedenwald Medal from the American
Gastroenterological Association in 1988, and the APS Ray Daggs Award for
Services to Physiology also in 1988.
His first doctoral student at the University of Michigan, Leonard (Rusty)
Johnson, said of Davenport: “He probably was the most educated person I ever
met. He seemed to know most of Shakespeare by heart, along with many
classical music pieces, and he’d give extemporaneous speeches on all kinds
of subjects.”
But most of all, said Johnson, “Davenport was a great teacher, who literally
made students learn. He also was a great department chair. His faculty
worshipped him because he was there to support them and stayed out of their
way when they didn’t need help.”
Under Davenport, Johnson earned his doctorate in 1967, publishing three
papers, none of which bore his mentor’s name. Johnson recalled: “He said:
‘That’s your work, not mine.’ That’s just the way he was.”
Two lectures are named after Davenport: at the annual EB meeting, the
Gastrointestinal and Liver Section’s is the “Horace W. Davenport
Distinguished Lectureship,” and the Univ. of Michigan Medical School
presents an annual “Horace W. Davenport Lecture in the Medical Humanities.”
These two lectures, covering GI research and the implications of
biomedicine, reflect Davenport’s range of professional interests, which were
impressed on him at Caltech, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in 1935
and his doctorate in biochemistry in 1939. In between, as a Rhodes Scholar
he “read” animal physiology and biochemistry at Balliol College, Oxford,
England, receiving two more baccalaureates.
After earning his doctorate at Caltech, Davenport held fellowships at the
Univ. of Rochester and Yale, and was an instructor in physiology at the
Univ. of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School.
In 1945 Davenport became chairman of the Department of Physiology at the
Univ. of Utah, where he developed his teaching skills and in 1947 published
his classic text, The ABC of Acid-Base Chemistry.
In 1956 Davenport became professor and chairman of the Department of
Physiology, Univ. of Michigan until 1978 when he became the William Beaumont
Emeritus Professor of Physiology. He retired in 1983. Another book,
Physiology of the Digestive Tract, was published in 1961.
Davenport’s research published in the 1960s explained how the gastric
mucosal barrier prevents the stomach from injuring itself while digesting
food. History of Medicine professor Howard Markell, a colleague for 25
years, said little was known about stomach acids before Davenport’s 1964
publication. “It was so revolutionary, it was clinically and scientifically
applicable immediately,” he said.
At Michigan, he was recognized as a charismatic and unforgettable teacher,
according to Robert Kelch, executive vice-president for medical affairs. He
“always kept me and my classmates spellbound,” in part because “he
understood the theater of being a teacher,” Kelch added.
John Williams, the current chair and professor at Michigan’s Department of
Molecular and Integrated Physiology, said Davenport’s work at Michigan
transformed the department into the well-known institution it is today.
Williams noted that Davenport had a dry sense of humor and was famous for
his toy brass cannon which he fired to “punctuate his remarks about gastric
acid secretion.” Johnson said it occasionally was also used to refocus
dozing students.
After his retirement in 1983, Davenport became a physiology and medical
historian, publishing seven books.
Born in Philadelphia, Davenport graduated high school in Glendale, CA, and
worked for two years at Pacific Bell Telephone Co. as a cable splicer and
installer before entering Caltech in Pasadena.
Davenport was predeceased by his two wives, Virginia (Dickerson) and
Ingeborg (Epstein) and a son, Thomas. He is survived by a son, Robertson
Davenport, director of the Univ. of Michigan’s blood bank and transfusion
service, his daughter-in-law Nancy Wirth, who is also at the Medical School,
and grandsons Nicholas and Alexander.
Contributions to the Univ. of Michigan scholarship fund in Davenport’s
memory can sent to the Univ. of Michigan Dept. of Molecular and Integrative
Physiology, 1301 East Catherine Street, 7744 Medical Science Building II,
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-0622. Checks should be made payable to the Univ. of
Michigan. Please specify the Horace Davenport Scholarship Fund on your
check. |
