Thursday, September 12, 2002, marked the inauguration of the Norman Thompson, M.D., Professorship in Surgery in the University of Michigan Medical School. Gerard M. Doherty, M.D., professor and head of General Surgery, was named the first recipient of the endowed professorship, named in honor of Professor Emeritus Norman Thompson (M.D. 1957, Residency 1962) in the School’s Department of Surgery.

Gerard Doherty with Dean Allen Lichter Photos by Gregory Fox

Doherty graduated from Yale Medical School in 1986, where he received the John Peters Prize for Outstanding Thesis. Subsequently, he trained in general surgery at the University of California-San Francisco, then completed a surgical oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. He returned to UCSF to become chief resident in the Department of Surgery from 1992 to 1993, then joined the faculty of the Washington University Medical School in St. Louis as an assistant professor. In 2002 he was appointed professor and head of the Section of General Surgery at the
U-M Medical School.

Doherty’s research involves the surgical management of multiple endocrine neoplasia and the role of interferon-gamma in tumor suppression. He has authored more than 65 peer-reviewed articles, edited several medical texts and written 46 book chapters. In addition to serving on the editorial board of the journal Annals of Surgical Oncology, Doherty is an active committee member for several organizations, including the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Association for Endocrine Surgeons.

Gerard Doherty, Elizabeth Upjohn-Mason, Norman W. Thompson

The Thompson Professorship was established by Elizabeth “Betty” Upjohn-Mason, president of the Upjohn National Leasing Company founded by her late husband, Burton H. Upjohn. Upjohn-Mason is a well-known philanthropist, educator, community activist and volunteer. She has chaired the Kalamazoo Community Foundation, was appointed to the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs by former Michigan Governor John Engler, and received the YWCA 1986 Women of Achievement Award.

Upjohn-Mason requested that the professorship be named in honor of Thompson in recognition of his kindness and medical service to the Upjohn family. Thompson twice operated on Burton Upjohn, who suffered from polycistic kidney disease and hyperthyroidism. Both procedures proved to be critical for Upjohn, preventing an untimely death. During his prestigious career, Thompson served as president of both the American and International Associations of Endocrine Surgeons, and produced an immense body of work that includes 270 scientific articles.

—RS

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