Obituaries
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Jim graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1975 with a double major in computer science and mathematics. After being selected for the Rhodes Scholarship, he was due to attend Oxford University, where he initially planned to study mathematics and receive his PhD. However, he developed symptoms of severe Guillain Barre syndrome, requiring hospitalization for an extended period of time before leaving for Oxford.
This experience ignited his interest in medicine, and ultimately altered his career path and life course. He went on to study physiology at Oxford, after which he attended Mayo Medical School. He met his wife Christie while in medical school in Rochester, and graduated in 1982. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in 1985, followed by a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Mayo.
Jim served as the department chair for the division of Infectious Diseases. Among his many career accolades as a Professor Emeritus of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, he was most proud of being named Mayo Teacher of the Year and loved to teach future generations of physicians. He retired in December 2018 after a long and fulfilling career.
Lionel Opie was born in South Africa in 1933, and after attending school in Cape Town, he went on to the undertake his medical degree at the University of Cape Town where he obtained a 1st Class honours as well as the gold medal in his final year; his academic credentials evolving from an earlier stage of his career.
After his internship at Groote Schuur Hospital, he went to Oxford University where he continued his medical training undertaking house jobs at the Radcliffe Infirmary, in addition to obtaining a Wellcome Trust Fellowship to undertake research under the Nobel Laureate, Sir Hans Krebs. It was here that he obtained his PhD degree investigating myocardial metabolism.
Further clinical positions followed at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, the Toronto General Hospital in Toronto, and then to London to become a consultant in Medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital and Imperial College where he continued as a Research Fellow under another Nobel Laureate, Sir Ernst Chain.
This very productive period covered the 1960’s and in the early 70’s he returned to his country of birth, South Africa, to take up the position as Director of the then named Medical Research Council Research Unit for Ischaemic Heart Disease at the University of Cape Town. His work revealed the metabolic derangements of carbohydrate and fatty acid metabolism of the ischaemic heart and demonstrated how acute myocardial infarction induces acute adrenergic stimulation. This increases circulating free fatty acids, further damaging the function of the heart which in turn inhibits glucose uptake causing more injury. This concept has had significant clinical implications. The treatment of acute coronary syndromes with beta-blockers is now routine therapy worldwide and has saved numerous lives.
During the following two decades the name of Lionel Opie was synonymous with three items.
a creative investigator with an excellent research output,
international travel and awards—too many to mention—and,
what many of us agree on as arguably his greatest asset, and that is his ability to disseminate knowledge
by this we mean both in his own scientific writings (he has published in excess of 500 manuscripts) and in addition he has published 31 books on heart disease, including his now legendary books ‘Drugs for the Heart’ (now in its 9th edition) and ‘Heart Physiology’ (now in its 4th edition) to name but just two. For me personally (BJG), the opportunity to work with him on this book as a co-editor provided me with a great learning experience and Lionel Opie was masterful as an author and editor.
It is difficult to pick out the highlights of his career, as there are so many, but one particular and notable highlight was his formation, in 1970, of what was then called the ‘Study Group for Research in Heart Metabolism’, which as we all know has become the famous ‘International Society for Heart Research’. In addition, he was the founding editor of the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, affectionally known as the ‘Yellow journal’ so you can see his contribution to cardiovascular medicine, as a whole, was huge.
Now to conclude on a more personal note. As we are aware political change occurred within South Africa in the early 1990s and in 1995, Lionel Opie and Derek Yellon set about cementing links between the University of Cape Town and University College London with the establishment of a second Hatter Institute for Cardiology at the University of Cape Town Medical School in Cape Town, initially with Lionel as its Director.
The 22nd ‘Cardiology, Diabetes & Nephrology at the Limits’ meeting is being held at the Royal College of Physcians on the 31st Oct -1st Nov 2020 and will be dedicated to the memory of Professor Lionel Opie.
Professor Opie has been an inspiration to all. His knowledge and his is contribution to cardiovascular research has been truly immense and we honour his decades of dedication to the understanding of cardiovascular disease in all its facets.
From a personal point of view, as a South African, Lionel was deeply humbled and honoured when he received the Order of Mapungubwe from President Thabo Mbeki; this being the highest award that the country can bestow on its citizens—a truly wonderful culmination to the great career of a great man. We will miss him deeply as a friend, colleague, and mentor.
Jim Gunton passed away in his home February 16, 2020. Jim retired in 2018 as Lehigh University’s “Joseph A. Waldschmitt Emeritus” Professor of Physics, having earlier served as the University’s Dean of Arts and Sciences. Jim began his career at Linfield College in 1954. He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and attended Merton College at Oxford, where he developed a love for physics. He was a Fulbright Scholar, Danforth Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Fellow (honorary) and subsequently received in 1967 a PhD from Stanford University. Professor Gunton was a statistical physicist with research interests in the field of pattern formation in non-linear, non-equilibrium systems. He served on the faculty at Temple University and also visiting professor (including Kyoto University and the University of Geneva). Jim was also provost at Kenyon University.
Kenneth Keniston was born in Chicago. He enrolled in Harvard College, and later earned a Rhodes Scholarship to complete his D. Phil in social studies from Balliol College. Keniston taught at Harvard University and Yale University before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty in 1977, where he served as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Human Development. Keniston and his wife Suzanne Berger both received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1979.
James George was educated at Upper Canada College, and Trinity College of the University of Toronto (philosophy), and was a Rhodes Scholar. A strong pacifist, and President of the Student Christian Movement, he was led by the disasters of 1940 to enlist in the Navy, surviving a torpedoing and rising to Lt-Commander and naval historian. In 1945 he entered Canada’s Foreign Service to work for peace, with postings to Greece, United Nations, NATO and France, and ambassadorial postings to Sri Lanka; India & Nepal; and Iran & Kuwait.
After retiring in 1977, he co-founded and headed the Sadat Peace Foundation and the Threshold Foundation. His environmental work included key roles in the whaling moratorium (1980), stopping the Kuwait oil fires (1991), and the No Weapons in Space initiative.
George Steiner, a literary polymath and man of letters whose voluminous criticism often dealt with the paradox of literature’s moral power and its impotence in the face of an event like the Holocaust, died at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 90.
After receiving his master’s degree from Harvard in 1950, he won a Rhodes Scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. He received his doctorate in English literature in 1955.
That same year he married Zara Alice Shakow, who became a historian of international relations. In addition to his son, his wife survives him along with a daughter, Deborah Tarn, who is a philologist, and two grandchildren.
In 1952, Mr. Steiner joined the editorial staff of The Economist, where he remained until 1956. After obtaining his doctorate, he became a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, then was appointed Christian Gauss Lecturer at Princeton from 1959 to 1960. From Princeton he went to Cambridge University, where he remained for the rest of his life, first as a fellow of Churchill College (1961-1969), then as an Extraordinary Fellow. He was an honorary fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.
At various times he also taught or lectured at the University of Geneva, New York University and Harvard, where he was appointed the Charles Eliot Norton professor of poetry for 2001-2002.
Andrew Savitz (Maryland & New College 1975) passed away on 29 January 2020. Andrew studied PPE as a Rhodes Scholar in 1975 and went on to Georgetown Law School. Andrew will be remembered for many things, not least of all his strength, wisdom, good humour, and ability to bring joy to those who knew him.
Clayton M. Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School whose groundbreaking 1997 book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” outlined his theories about the impact of what he called “disruptive innovation”, died on Thursday at a hospital in Boston. He was 67.
Clayton studied Applied Econometrics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar from 1975, graduated from Harvard Business School, and joined the Harvard Business School’s faculty in 1992. For many years he taught a course called “Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise.” He focused his theories on a wide range of industries, from education to health care. A former basketball star (he stood 6-foot-8) as well as an affable academic, he focused as much on a life well lived as he did on his management theories.
Francis graduated from Prince Edward H.S. in Salisbury and then the University of Cape Town where he received a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. He then received his Ph.D. in physics from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. While at Oxford he was a research associate on Atomic Beams and a Laboratory Instructor - his specialty was in Experimental Atomic Physics and Helium III.
After graduating from Oxford Francis was employed at Yale University in New Haven, Ct., as a researcher in Physics, Associate Professor of physics and was a Junior Faculty Fellowship. Upon leaving Yale, Francis join the Physics faculty at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and whilst there he was made full professor. Francis was a contributor and co-author of many scientific papers and a member of the American Physical Society.