Jere Edwin Goyan
Jere Edwin Goyan, PhD, former dean of UCSF's School of Pharmacy and the only pharmacist to serve as commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, died Wednesday at his home in Kingwood, Texas. He was 76.
Goyan led the effort to include clinical training in the education of pharmacists, first at UCSF and then nationwide. The curriculum changes initiated by Goyan and colleagues at UCSF transformed the profession into one whose practitioners are now drug therapy experts who provide health care counseling to patients in pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, and community settings.
He was dean of the UCSF pharmacy school from 1967 to 1992, taking a leave from October, 1979 to January, 1981 to serve as FDA commissioner under President Jimmy Carter.
"Jere was a giant," said Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy. "He was truly a visionary. He was bold in his thinking, and a very strong proponent of bringing the pharmacist into patient care. He also saw before most the importance of fundamental research to pharmacy and to pharmacy education. He recruited top scientists such as Tack Kuntz and Bob Langridge, pioneers in research aimed at designing more effective drugs. Jere was deeply admired by people throughout the School of Pharmacy, and nationally."
Born in Oakland and raised in Eureka, California, Goyan studied pharmacy as an undergraduate at UCSF, receiving his BS in 1952. He then pursued graduate studies at UCSF and received his PhD in pharmaceutical chemistry in 1957.
He served on the University of Michigan School of Pharmacy faculty from 1956 to 1963 before joining the UCSF pharmacy faculty. His principal area of research was pharmacokinetics, particularly the dissolution and degradation rates of drugs.
During his tenure as dean, the UCSF pharmacy school became the leader among pharmacy schools nationwide in research as measured by federal research funding, and has since consistently ranked first in the academic quality of its doctor of pharmacy program.
"He was the single most persuasive influence on the pharmacy profession," said Robert Day, PharmD, associate dean of pharmacy at UCSF. "His conviction that clinical experience should be part of a pharmacist's training and practice, while revolutionary when he proposed it, is now accepted internationally. There are thousands and thousands of pharmacists across the nation who owe a debt of gratitute to this man for his influence on their practices."
As FDA commissioner, Goyan was a strong advocate of a patient's right to be well informed about the drugs being prescribed, and he urged more careful study of drug use. He approved regulations mandating patient information inserts into all prescription drug packets.
After he retired, Goyan was president and chief operating officer of Alteon, Inc., a New Jersey pharmaceutical startup. He held this position from 1993 to 1998. He then served on the board of director for several drug development companies.
Goyan was the first pharmacist elected to the Institute of Medicine, and in 1992, he received the prestigious Remington Medal, the national highest award in pharmacy. In 1996, he was awarded the UCSF Medal, the highest honor bestowed by UCSF.
He served as president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
He is survived by his wife, Linda Lloyd Hart, of Kingwood, Texas; his children, Pamela Goyan Kittler, in Sunnyvale, California ; Terrence Goyan, of Fairfax, California; and Andrea Goyan, of Burbank, California; grandchildren Erika Brown and Adrienne Kittler and great-grandson, Richard Brown, all of Sunnyvale; and his former wife Patricia Sumner, of Mill Valley, California.
A memorial on the UCSF campus is being planned.
The Goyan family has established the Dean Jere E. Goyan Memorial Fund at UCSF, to be used for "student and faculty development." Checks made out to the UCSF Foundation, noting the Jere E. Goyan Memorial Fund, can be mailed to P.O. Box 45339, San Francisco CA 94145-0339,
or gifts can be made directly online. Donations in Dr. Goyan's memory also can be made to the Glide Memorial Foundation in San Francisco.
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