George Whipple

Known for

Nobel Laureate and founding dean of UR Medical School

Occupation(s)

Physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, administrator

Website

NobelPrize.org

Wikipedia

Dr. George Hoyt Whipple was the founding dean of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, a post he held from 1921 to 1954. He graduated from Yale University in 1900 and received his MD from John Hopkins in 1905. Before coming to Rochester worked in Panama during the construction of the canal and then came to the University of California Medical School as a professor and director of the Hooper Foundation for Medical Research. He served as dean of that school from 1920-21. He came to Rochester a year later. In addition to his work as dean at UR, he was also Professor and Chairman of Pathology.

In 1934 Dr. Whipple was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery that liver fed to anemic dogs reverses the effects of the anemia. Throughout this research he had worked closely with Dr. Frieda Robscheit-Robbins. Their discovery was translated into a cure for pernicious anemia by Drs. George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy, who shared the prize with Whipple. Whipple divided the money with Dr. Robscheit-Robbins, however, as he felt she deserved the Nobel as well. The two had authored over twenty-one papers based on their research.

Dr. Whipple was also the first person to describe a mysterious condition he called lipodystrophia intestinalis due to the abnormal lipid deposits in the small intestine wall. He also correctly pointed to the bacterial cause of the disease. Today it is called Whipple's disease.

Dr. Whipple died at age 97 and is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery. His wife was Katharine Waring Whipple.

In June 2020 as part of an anti-racism effort URMC began removing Whipple's name from offices and other features of the campus, evidently because of his historical resistance to the admission of black students.¹

• Whipple Park

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