ANN ARBOR, MI - One of the world's preeminent gastric physiologists whose landmark studies led to the discovery of the stomach's barrier to injury has died.  

Horace W. Davenport, William Beaumont Professor Emeritus of Physiology at the University of Michigan, author of three best selling textbooks on acid-base chemistry and the physiology of the digestive tract, Rhodes Scholar, member of the National Academy of Sciences, and former president of the American Physiological Society died of complications of pneumonia on August 29, 2005 at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was 92.

Davenport revolutionized the world of gastroenterology when he discovered the role of carbonic anydrase in the parietal cells of the stomach. His findings led to a greater understanding of the gastric mucosal barrier which prevents the stomach from injuring or digesting itself.

“Many successful therapies for peptic ulcer disease today are based on Dr. Davenport's discovery of this mechanism,” explains Howard Markel, M.D., George E. Wantz Professor of the History of Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Director, Center for the History of Medicine, University of Michigan. “Dr. Davenport made a monumental scientific contribution.”

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 20, 1912, Davenport resided in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He completed his undergraduate studies at the California Institute of Technology (1935), prior to entering Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar that same year. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Physiology there, Davenport returned to the California Institute of Technology where he received his doctorate in Biochemistry (1939).

Following fellowships at the University of Rochester (1939-40) and Yale University (1940-41), and two years as instructor in physiology -- first at the University of Pennsylvania (1941-43) and then at Harvard Medical School (1943-45) -- Davenport was appointed professor and head of the Department of Physiology (1945-56) at the University of Utah College of Medicine. He also served as chairman of the Division of Biological Sciences, University of Utah (1948-51) and Visiting Professor at the Mayo Foundation (1962-63).

One of the University of Michigan's most distinguished scholars and teachers, Davenport joined the faculty as professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology (1956) -- positions he held until 1978 when he became the William Beaumont Professor of Physiology .

“As a teacher, Dr. Davenport was absolutely brilliant -- he had a profound command of his subject. He also understood the theater of being a teacher,” says Markel. “He was one of the preeminent scientists in the world and a model member of our faculty.”

"Dr. Davenport was one of my most memorable and effective teachers. His charismatic approach and wealth of knowledge and experience always kept me and my classmates spellbound. I feel a deep sense of loss," says Robert Kelch, U-M executive vice president for medical affairs.

As Chair of Physiology for 22 years and one of the icons at the University of Michigan Medical School, Davenport was influential in the lives and training of hundreds of students throughout his career. He will also be remembered for rebuilding the department and making it one of the outstanding research and teaching facilities in its field. Davenport retired from active faculty status in 1983.

“I met Dr. Davenport on my first day of medical school when he began lecturing to us about the GI tract,” recalls Allen S. Lichter, M.D., dean of the U-M Medical School. “He was a brilliant and demanding teacher, one who still looms larger than life. For generations of students in Ann Arbor and throughout the world of medicine, Horace Davenport exercised considerable influence. “

After stepping down as chairman of the University of Michigan's Department of Physiology in 1983, Davenport became interested in the history of medicine, continuing that interest after he retired. He had a longtime interest in the history of physiology and medicine and had written many essays on the subject, but then devoted himself intensively to it as his major scholarly activity after closing his research laboratory.

“He was more active in his retirement than most people are while employed,” says Markel. “Horace was curious in every aspect of his career and always looked things up. He used to say that his definition of an educated person was someone who had ‘unquenchable curiosity and the energy and discipline to find out about those things you do not know much about.' There are legions of students who revered Horace as a mentor and teacher.”

Davenport significantly influenced the teaching of physiology worldwide through his three textbooks on acid-base chemistry and the physiology of the digestive tract. One of these texts, “The ABC of Acid-Base Chemistry,” published in 1947 sold over 140,000 copies and is now in its sixth edition. The text has been translated into seven languages. Davenport also published over 90 articles in scientific journals.

“Horace was a very successful author,” says Markel. “He wrote with an elegant, clean prose. I can't tell you how many tens of thousands of medical students have fallen asleep the night before an examination -- clutching Davenport 's “The ABC of Acid-Base Chemistry.”

During his career, Davenport also authored a number of other texts, including: “Physiology of the Digestive Tract” 1961; “Fifty Years of Medicine at the University of Michigan 1891-41,” 1986; and “Dr. Dock: Teaching and Learning Medicine at the Turn of the Century” 1987. He also authored “Not Just Any Medical School” (1999), the definitive history of the University of Michigan Medical School.

The recipient of many honors and awards throughout the years, Davenport received the Alumni Distinguished Service Award, California Institute of Technology (1966); the Friedenwald Medal, American Gastroenterological Association (1980); appointment to the National Academy of Sciences (1974); and the Ray Daggs Award for Services to Physiology, American Physiological Society (1988).

A member of numerous distinguished scientific societies, Davenport held memberships in the National Academy of Sciences; Council of the American Physiological Society; Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine; and Society of Gastro-Intestinal Radiologists. He was also an Honorary Member of the British Society of Gastroenterology (1990).

In addition to Davenport's son, Robertson Davies Davenport, M.D., and daughter-in-law, Nancy Wirth, M.D., both on the University of Michigan Medical School faculty, he is survived by grandsons, Nicholas and Alexander Davenport. He was preceded in death by two wives: Virginia (Diskerson), who died in the 1968, and Ingeborg (Epstein), who died in 2004. He was also preceded in death by son, Thomas Landis Davenport, who died in 1988.

In his spare time, Davenport enjoyed the opera, theater, literature and cooking, among other interests. “He was always interested in the life of the mind,” says Markel. “Horace was a man in full. He was the real thing.”

According to the family, there will be no funeral.

On Oct. 20, the Fifth Annual Horace W. Davenport Lecture in the Medical Humanities will be held. Regina Morantz-Sanchez, a professor of history in the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science and the Arts, will speak on the topic of gender and the history of medicine at 8 a.m. , MCHC Auditorium, C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.

Written by Barbara Wylan Sefton

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