Kenneth Patrick DuBois (August 9, 1917–January 24, 1973)

John Doull1

Department of Pharmacology, Toxicology and Therapeutics, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Kansas City, Kansas 66160-7417

Received August 31, 1999; accepted September 3, 1999

Kenneth Patrick DuBois was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota but was raised in Pierre, SD as the oldest of seven children. After graduating from high school, he attended South Dakota State College where he received a B.S. degree in chemistry and pharmacy in 1939. His interest in toxicology was first stimulated during his undergraduate days, when he worked with Dr. A. L. Moxom in the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. This work resulted in seven papers, six of which were on selenium poisoning and the ability of arsenic to counteract selenium toxicity. Although he also had a Rotary Scholarship, these were depression times and Ken was very grateful for the financial as well as the intellectual benefits of his undergraduate employment. He then went to Purdue as an American Pharmaceutical Association Fellow and received a M.S. in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1940. Shortly thereafter, he was invited by Dr. Van L. Potter (also from South Dakota) to come to the University of Wisconsin`s McArdle Lab for his doctoral training, and he was awarded his Ph.D. in physiology and biochemistry there in 1943. In June of that year, he came to the University of Chicago as a member of its newly created toxicity laboratory (Chemical Warfare Service).

Thus began an association that lasted for almost thirty years, as he moved from research assistant to director (1953) and from instructor to professor (1956), in the Department of Pharmacology. Ken was clearly influenced in his decision to come to the University of Chicago Toxicity Laboratory by Dr. E. M. K. Geiling, who was the first official investigator in the laboratory. Dr. Geiling was also chairman of the Pharmacology Department, which became Ken's department.

Kenneth DuBois`s death at the age of 55 from lung cancer was a tragic loss for his wife Jere, his three children, his family, friends, students, and colleagues. It was also a great loss for the discipline of toxicology, to which he was deeply committed and in which he had played a major role in defining the science and charting its course.

Kenneth DuBois was one of the founders of the Society of Toxicology and he served as its first vice-president (1961–2). He recognized the importance of a society journal and served as the first Managing Editor of Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology after it became the official organ of SOT in 1963. Arnold J. Lehman and Fred Coulston were listed as Editors. Ken nominated Dr. Geiling to be an honorary member of SOT, and Geiling, along with W. F. von Oettingen and T. Sollman, became the first honorary members of SOT. He also chaired the program committee for the first annual meeting in 1962 and arranged the first joint SOT-ASPET fall meeting. During the next decade, he chaired and/or served on many other SOT committees, particularly those relating to education. In 1972, the SOT honored him the Merit Award for a career of meritorious service and contributions to the discipline of toxicology. Kenneth DuBois received many other honors in his career, but the SOT Merit Award was the one that he displayed prominently and valued most highly, because it came from his peers and colleagues.

Although his professional career encompassed less than three decades, Dr. DuBois authored more than 200 research papers, several chapters in books, and a textbook in toxicology that was widely used for both graduate and medical teaching. As an educator, he was the advisor for 25 doctoral programs and several post-doctoral programs, and he introduced hundreds of physicians to the practical importance of toxicology in medicine. He encouraged his students to seek careers in academia and many did (J. Brodeur, G. Carlson, K. Cochran, J. Doull, M. Ehrich, B. Heitbrink, S. Murphy, R. Neal, M. Su, T. Satoh, E. Uyeki, and T. Williams). He also served on several ASPET, NRC/NAS, HEW, FDA, AMA, and other governmental, military, and industrial committees.

The research contributions of Kenneth DuBois included pivotal papers: with Potter in cancer research, toxicity studies on natural products and metals, and numerous papers on the mechanism, toxicity, and antagonism of radiation injury. However, the main focus of his research was on the toxicity and mechanism of action of the organophosphate insecticides. His initial studies with TEPP and E-605 (parathion) demonstrated their cholinergic mechanisms and the effectiveness of atropine as an antidote. Dr. DuBois and his associates subsequently characterized the toxicity of a large series of organophosphates, and his studies with Sheldon Murphy elucidated the biochemical basis for potentiation of their effects. He clearly understood the need for mechanistic studies to clarify toxic effects but recognized that elegant mechanisms in a non-relevant species contributed little to predictive toxicology. He was also somewhat skeptical of statistics, arguing that if you need statistics to answer the question, you should probably go back and try to ask a different question.

Ken believed that good science was not determined by whether your research was basic or applied, and that massaging someone else's data or carrying out administrative duties were not substitutes for time spent in the lab and on the daily checking of the rats. To all of us who knew him, and to all who have come to know him through his research and work, Kenneth DuBois was clearly a "real" toxicologist.

NOTES

1 For correspondence via fax: (913) 588-7501. E-mail: jdoull{at}kumc.edu. Back





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