Dr. William W. Douglas, professor of pharmacology at the School of Medicine and a leader in pharmacology research, died on July 2, at the Hospice in Branford, Connecticut. He was 75 years old.
Dr. Douglas made major contributions to the field of neuroscience. His research focused on the physiology and pharmacology of the endocrine and other secretory cells and the role calcium played in stimulation and secretion. He recently opened up a new field by showing that secretory cells in the anterior pituitary in the brain are electrically excitable, and that pharmacological agents may affect secretion by regulating this excitability.
According to Murdoch Ritchie, the Eugene Higgins professor of pharmacology and codirector of Yale's interdepartmental neuroscience program, Dr. Douglas contributed greatly to many aspects of pharmacology, not only through his original experimental contributions, but also through numerous new ideas and concepts that he advanced in various symposia and reviews. "He was a superb teacher and he took enormous pains in the preparation of his lectures," says Ritchie. "He will be remembered by many generations of medical and graduate students for his skill in making difficult topics in pharmacology come alive."
Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Dr. Douglas received his primary degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Glasgow in 1946. He later earned another medical degree with honors from the Scottish university for his research.
He served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1949-1950 and was also a member of the staff of the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London in its division of physiology and pharmacology. In 1952, Dr. Douglas became a visiting professor in the department of pharmacology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons. He returned permanently to the U.S. in 1956 as professor of pharmacology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he remained until he became professor of pharmacology at Yale in 1968.
The Yale professor won numerous awards for his work, including the John Gaddum Memorial Award from the British Pharmacological Society in 1967 and the Van Dyke Memorial Award from Columbia University in 1975. In 1983, he was elected to the Royal Society, the oldest national academy of science in continuous existence.
Dr. Douglas is survived by his wife, Jeannine, two sons and two
grandchildren.
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