In Memoriam: Victor A. McKusick, M.D., University of New England Board of Trustees
It is with deep sadness that the University reports that trustee and friend of the University of New England, Victor A. McKusick, M.D., died on Tuesday, July 22, 2008.
Dr. McKusick was a member of the University's Board of Trustees, having joined the Board in 2004, serving on the Academic Affairs and Research and Development committees. He was recently honored at the University's College of Arts and Sciences and College of Health Professions Commencement ceremony in June, receiving an honorary doctor science degree for his lifetime of contributions to the field of medicine and genetics.
"The world knew Victor McKusick as a brilliant and accomplished man. We also knew him as a trustee, a friend, and an inspiration -- a man who not only never forgot his humble Maine roots, but cherished and honored them," said University of New England President Danielle Ripich.
Dr. McKusick was born on a dairy farm in Parkman, Maine, on Oct. 21, 1921. His parents were teachers and he attended grammar school in a one-room schoolhouse. As a child, he had planned to become a minister. Then, at 15, he developed a streptococcal infection of his arm and had to spend 10 weeks in a hospital while receiving a sulfa drug, one of the first antibiotics, an experience that led him to medicine.
He ultimately earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins medical school in 1946 and had intended to return to Maine to go into general practice. But he won a prestigious fellowship, and while training as a cardiologist he became fascinated by patients with unusual inherited disorders, and in 1957, Dr. McKusick established a medical genetics clinic, one of only two believed to have been the first medical genetics clinics in the U.S.
Dr. McKusick was intrigued by the idea of a genetic map for humans, and in his studies of links between inheritance and disease, he began mapping genes on human chromosomes. That work eventually led to Dr. McKusick's being awarded this country's highest science honor, the National Medal of Science, for his work in the field of genetics. He is widely regarded as the father of medical genetics for demonstrating the link between gene inheritance and disease. A world-class physician, research scientist, medical historian and teacher, his career has spanned many disciplines since he received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is honored there as the namesake of the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins.
McKusick published the first edition of Mendelian Inheritance in Man, a compilation of inherited disease genes that has become a basic scientific reference, and has served as editor or co-editor of several prestigious publications. He is a member of several National Academy of Sciences committees and has received numerous honorary degrees and prestigious scientific awards.
Dr. McKusick is survived by his wife, Anne, a rheumatologist at Johns Hopkins; two sons, Kenneth A. of Ruxton, Md., and the Rev. Victor W. of Herkimer, N.Y.; a daughter, Carol Anne of Urbana, Ill.; and his identical twin, Vincent, a retired chief justice of the Supreme Court of Maine.