Deaths



Medicine's Dr. Haddad,
Endocrinologist and Leader in Bone Metabolism

Dr. John G. Haddad, Jr., an internationally renowned endocrinologist and professor of medicine who recently took on a new assignment as associate chair for research in the Department of Medicine, died on Thursday, May 22, at the age of 59.

With his wife, Julia, Dr. Haddad was en route to an international conference in Strasbourg, and the couple had stopped in Paris to visit his niece and her young son when, during a morning stroll to photograph the chapel Sainte -Chapelle, Dr. Haddad collapsed with a massive heart attack.

His sudden loss was mourned by colleagues not only in the School of Medicine but throughout the scientific community, as colleagues recalled his humor and kindness, his love of jazz, comedy and theatre, and his place in science as "a giant in the field of vitamin D metabolism," as his collaborator Dr. Louis Avioli summed it up.

Dr. Haddad came to Penn in 1980 as a full professor and was initially chief of the Endocrine Division at PennMed, a position he held for 12 years before becoming chief of the new Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Medical School.

Last year he was named associate chair for research in his department, where the chairman, Dr. Edward Holmes, praised the combination of research and administrative ability that had enabled him to establish "a premier basic and clinical research program in bone and mineral metabolism."

He was completing the third year-of a three-year term as an at-large member of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee.

A highly respected teacher, clinician and investigator throughout his career, in recent years he was increasingly singled out by colleagues for his ability to draw together promising researchers and ideas from diverse fields for new approaches to problems in both clinical and basic research.

He was world famous for his own discoveries, including the first reliable test for measuring vitamin D levels in the blood, which is now the world standard, and he was noted especially as a bone endocrinologist bridging the fields of skeleal biology and hormone research.

At the time of his death he was principal investigator on four projects--involving functions of the plasma Vitamin D binding protein; the role of estrogen in bone biology and osteoporosis; mineral and skeletal homeostasis; and alendronate in prevention of bone loss during glucocorticoid treatment.

Dr. Haddad published over 130 scientific papers and another 50 book chapters, reviews and editorials, and he served on the editorial boards of half a dozen prestigious journals during his career.

His numerous professional affiliations included--in addition to the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, which he headed in 1988-89--the Endocrine Society, the Orthopedic Research Society, the American College of Nutrition, and the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He served twice on the scientific advisory board of the Paget's Disease Foundation, and was named chair of it in 1990; and he was on the N.I.H. General Medicine B Study Section, the V.A. Endocrinology Merit Review Board, and the scientific advisory board of the National Osteoporosis Foundation.

Dr. Haddad was a native of New Orleans who earned his B.A. with Honors in Philosophy at Tulane in 1958, and his M.D. there four years later. After an internship at the Philadelphia General Hospital and residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, he trained in endocrinology at the University of Virginia Medical School in Charlottesville, and took up a fellowship in endocrinology at Washington University St. Louis.

There, in 1969, he also began his teaching career as an instructor. Named assistant professor two years later, and director of medical education for the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis a year after that, he had become associate professor by 1974. He won an N.I.H. Career Development Award for 1972-75 and a Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation Faculty Scholar Award in 1978.

In addition to his wife he is survived by their daughter, Margaret, and their son, John G. III, and a sister, Joan Daniel. Contributions may be made to the John G. Haddad, Jr. Memorial Lecture Fund, c/o the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania and sent to Medical Center Development at Suite 400 Penn Tower, 399 S. 34th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104-4385.

Professor E. Jane Carlin,
Pioneer in Two Worlds

Professor Emeritus Eleanor Jane Carlin, a noted physical therapist and brigadier general of the Air Force who was on the Penn faculty for 35 years, died on May 18 at the age of 79.

Professor Carlin was a native of Jenkintown who received her bachelor's degree in physical therapyat Beaver College in 1940, and entered the emerging profession of physical therapy by joining a training program sponsored by the Army. Her class graduated on December 7, 1941; and, as she later told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "I woke up a civilian and went to bed a second lieutenant." Within a year she was a captain.

Serving at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington during the early years of the war, she was called to the White House to give physical therapy to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. But by 1945 she was practicing her profession under fire, caring for prisoners of war and local accident victims in Australia, the Philippines, and islands in between.

After the war she earned a master's degree at Penn in 1948 and taught briefly at Drexel University before joining Penn's School of Allied Medical Professions, a pioneering school of its kind with programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy and medical technology.

She was to continue with the University for 35 years, becoming full professor and chair of physical therapy, and serving as acting dean of the School, in 1969.

During 15 years of her post-war career she was also the physical therapy consultant to the Surgeon General of the Air Force, and in that role she was promoted to brigadier general--the first woman in the armed forces to achieve that rank.

She was a Lindback Award-winning teacher; a trustee of Beaver College, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate; president of the American Physical Therapy Association and editor for six years of its journal; and winner of the Commonwealth's Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania Award.

Professor Carlin is survived by three cousins, Andrew Boutcher, Barbara A. Acre and Jack C. Boutcher. The family have suggested contributions to Immaculate Conception Church, 602 West Ave., Jenkintown PA 19046; or to Beaver College, 450 Easton Road, Glenside PA 19038.


Almanac

Volume 43 Number 35
May 20, 1997


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