In Memoriam: Dr. John M. Dietschy Sr. was a visionary hepatologist and expert on cholesterol metabolism
Professor Emeritus Dr. John M. Dietschy Sr., a preeminent authority on cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism who founded and led the Gastroenterology Division before serving as Chief of the Digestive and Liver Diseases Division at UT Southwestern, died July 18. He was 87.
“Dr. Dietschy was a visionary hepatologist who helped shape research and clinical practice in the field for more than 50 years,” said Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky, President of UT Southwestern. “His leadership at UT Southwestern had a profound and lasting influence on many physician-scientists, and those fortunate to have collaborated with Dr. Dietschy will recall his passion for science was matched by his passion for mentoring the next generation of researchers.”
Dr. Dietschy worked at UTSW for 49 years before retiring in 2012, then continued to serve the University eight more years as a Professor Emeritus. He joined the UTSW community in 1963 as a fellow attracted by the significant work and discoveries of Drs. Marvin Siperstein, Jean Wilson, and Dan Foster in lipids and intestinal absorption. Dr. Donald Seldin recruited him to join the faculty in 1965.
Dr. Dietschy supported the efforts of other UTSW investigators, including Dr. Michael Brown, who was a research fellow under Dr. Dietschy in 1971, long before he and UTSW colleague Dr. Joseph Goldstein received the 1985 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
“John was a major fixture at UTSW for many years and was the best animal physiologist that I ever saw,” Dr. Brown said. “He didn’t believe anything unless it was done in an animal model. When Joe and I were working on tissue culture cells, it was John who urged us to do companion studies in rats.”
Together with Dr. John Fordtran, Dr. Dietschy founded Internal Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology, which he led from 1979 to 1998. The Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases was formed in 1998 by the merger of the Gastroenterology and the Liver Unit. Dr. Dietschy chaired this new Division from 1998 to 2002, and it remains one of the top academic gastroenterology and hepatology units in the country.
Holder of the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Chair, Dr. Dietschy also led the Division’s successful fellowship program, which is now integrated among several key clinical sites and includes a research track supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) training grant. His personal interactions with mentees broadened many horizons, as their conversations would include insights from Dr. Dietschy’s many interests beyond medicine, including pre-Columbian, African, and New Guinea art and archeology; history; mountain climbing; photography; Amish quilts; and classical music – especially baroque.
An Illinois native, Dr. Dietschy earned his medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 1958. He completed an internal medicine residency at the VA Medical Center in Denver before receiving additional training in gastroenterology at Boston University School of Medicine.
His seminal contributions in the understanding of bile acid and cholesterol metabolism set the foundation for many of the important discoveries in this area.
Dr. Dietschy served on the editorial boards of seven medical journals and was the author of five books and more than 200 research publications. In recognition of his substantial scientific insights, Dr. Dietschy received numerous awards, including the Distinguished Achievement Award of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) in 1978, the Heinrich Wieland Prize in lipid biochemistry (University of Munich, 1983), the McKenna Medal of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (1985), NIH MERIT Award (1995), and the Janssen Award in Gastroenterology for Lifetime Achievement in Digestive Sciences (2001). In 1988-89, he served as President of the AGA.
Dr. Dietschy is survived by his wife of 61 years, Beverly Robertson Dietschy, their four children – sons John M. Dietschy Jr. and partner Diane Schweitzer, Daniel Dietschy and wife Jeannie, and Michael Dietschy; and daughter Karen Dietschy Reuther and husband Robert – and six grandchildren.
Dr. Brown, a Regental Professor, is Director of the Erik Jonsson Center for Research in Molecular Genetics and Human Disease, as well as a Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine. He holds The W.A. (Monty) Moncrief Distinguished Chair in Cholesterol and Arteriosclerosis Research and the Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine.
Dr. Goldstein, a Regental Professor, is Chair of Molecular Genetics and a Professor of Molecular Genetics and Internal Medicine. He holds the Julie and Louis A. Beecherl, Jr. Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Research and the Paul J. Thomas Chair in Medicine.
Dr. Podolsky holds the Philip O’Bryan Montgomery, Jr., M.D. Distinguished Presidential Chair in Academic Administration, and the Doris and Bryan Wildenthal Distinguished Chair in Medical Science.