We report the passing of Ronald W. Estabrook on 5 August 2013 in Dallas, Texas. Ron served as the President-Elect (1986–1987), President (1988–1989), and Past-President (1990–1991) of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics. He was subsequently appointed by Council to Honorary Membership in the Society and an Honorary Editorial Board Member of Drug Metabolism Reviews since 2007. His leadership in ISSX was a major force in the Society becoming a more structured international Society, achieving its current status under Yuichi Sugiyama, Urs Meyer, and Russ Prough.
Professor Estabrook was born on 3 January 1926 in Albany, New York. After graduating from high school in 1943, he entered the Navy V-12 program at Princeton University and served on active duty in the Pacific from 1943 to 1946. He resigned from the Navy as Lt. (jg) in 1958. Ron received his BS degree with a major in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1950 and his PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester in 1954. His dissertation title was “Studies on the Cytochromes of Heart Muscle Extracts” and his mentor was Professor Elmer Stotz. From 1954 to 1957 Ron was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johnson Foundation of the University of Pennsylvania, working with Dr. Britton Chance and from 1957 to 1959 he was an Research Associate at the Johnson Foundation. From 1958 to 1959, Ron was a visiting Research Fellow at the Molteno Institute, Cambridge University, England, where he worked with Professor David Keilin. He rose up the academic ladder at Penn, becoming the Professor of Physical Biochemistry and in 1968 moving to the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas to become Virginia Lazenby O'Hara Professor and Chairman of the Biochemistry Department at Southwestern Medical School. He served as the Chairman of that Department until 1982, building it into one of the best Biochemistry Departments in the world. From 1973 to 1976, Ron also served as the Dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences raising the visibility of the institution as a PhD-granting Institution. He was also awarded an honorary Doctor of Medicine from the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1981 and a Doctor of Science from the University of Rochester (1981). He has served on numerous national and international advisory committees including the Governing Board of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences and the Council of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
The scientific experiment that distinguished his research was the use of biophysical methods developed at the Johnson Foundation to assist David Cooper and Otto Rosenthal in linking steroid hydroxylation to the photochemical activation spectra for reversal of CO-inhibition of that reaction, catalyzed by the CO-reactive hemoprotein elucidated by Tsuneo Omura and Ryo Sato to the many enzyme reactions understudy at the time. Other biophysicial studies from the Estabrook laboratory led to the ability to measure substrate finding to the hemoprotein using spectrophotometry in turbid solutions.
Ron served as the Professor of Biochemistry until 2006 when he assumed the position of Emeritus Professor. Nevertheless, he maintained his office at Southwestern and was selected to be the “Dean” of a teaching college at Southwestern Medical School. He greatly enjoyed his many interactions with Medical Students throughout the last 10 years. Ron's contributions to Biochemistry, in general, and P450 research specifically are far too numerous to cite here and he has received many awards. A most notable award was his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1979 (elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1975), the first faculty member to achieve this level of recognition at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. The number of NAS members on the Southwestern faculty is now approaching 30. He received the Prestigious FASEB Distinguished Scientist Award in 1977 and the Dougherty Award from the American Chemical Society in 1981. He served as President of the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (1988–89) and was a Life-time Honorary member of that Society which has named its North American Scientific Achievement Award after him. He was also an honorary member of the California Oxygen Society (1988). Six of the faculty he recruited to Southwestern Medical School have also served as department chairs, demonstrating his leadership in academic programs around the country. These include Bettie Sue Masters (Biochemistry, Medical College of Wisconsin), Michael Waterman (Biochemistry, Vanderbilt U.), Russell Prough (Biochemistry, U. Louisville), Louis Hersh (Biochemistry, U. Kentucky), Michael Douglas (Biochemistry, UNC-Chapel Hill) and Thomas Smith (Biochemistry, Howard University).
His contributions to our field of research were instrumental to put this enzyme system into biochemical perspective and he served as an academic and societal leader in the development of the field of drug metabolism and disposition. His contributions to our field of research as a spark plug for interdisciplinary studies, including internationalization of our research areas is best seen by the prestige of our Affiliated Journal, Drug Metabolism Reviews. For those who have attended scientific meetings with Ron, one memory that we recognize was the penetrating questions he asked of the speakers at these sessions. The last meeting that he attended, the North American Regional ISSX meeting in October, 2012 in Dallas, displayed this intense question and answers sessions he was noted for. Ron was a true pioneer in our understanding of many biochemical aspects of P450 and drug metabolism.
While the above description summarizes the exceptional accomplishments of Ron Estabrook as an investigator and leader in Biochemistry, his most admirable accomplishment is his commitment to his family. Ron and his wife June have been well known throughout the world as a close and supportive couple. Their family consists of 4 children, 7 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. When one looks for mentors and examples of a well-lived life, professionally and personally, Ron Estabrook is a worthy model.