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Robert B. Gunn
July 12, 1939 - June 27, 2005
Published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on
6/30/2005. Family-Placed Death Notice.
ROBERT BURNS GUNN Robert Burns Gunn, MD, Professor and former Chairman of
the Physiology Department at Emory University School of Medicine died on
June 26, 2005 from enteropathy type T-cell lymphoma. He was 65 years old. He
is survived by his wife Sharon McClellan Gunn, his four children (Lora Gunn,
MD, Heather Gunn, Molly Gunn, and Ian Gunn, all of Atlanta), two
grandchildren (Egan and Adan Gunn Jarvis) and all three of his brothers
(Ross Gunn II of Newport Coast, CA, Rev. Andrew Leigh Gunn of Germantown,
MD, and Charles Rowley Gunn of Potomac, MD). Dr. Gunn was the fourth son of
noted scientist Ross Gunn and Gladys Gunn and was born and raised in
Washington, DC. Dr. Gunn received his BS in biophysics from University of
Michigan in 1961 and his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1966. He married
Sharon McClellan Gunn in 1963. After an internship at the Beth Israel
Hospital in Boston, he served two years in the USPHS at the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. In 1969, he and his family moved to
Durham, NC for a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University with Dr. Daniel
C. Tosteson, and after two years, he joined the faculty at Duke as Assistant
Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology. Dr. Gunn was a visiting scientist
at the Institute for Biophysics at the University of Copenhagen during
1971-72. In 1975, he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago where
he was an Associate Professor of Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences.
He came to Emory University School of Medicine in 1981 and served as
Professor and Chairman of Physiology for over 23 years. He directed the
MD/PhD program for 13 years and the Fellowships in Research and Science
Teaching until his death. Dr. Gunn was an internationally recognized
authority on the molecular mechanisms of ion transport across cell
membranes. He served as president of the Society of General Physiologists,
treasurer of the Biophysical Society for 8 years, and Chairman of the Cell
and Molecular Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society. He
was the recipient of the Kenneth S. Cole Award for his work on anion
transport across red blood cells, and just days before his death, was
awarded the 2006 Distinguished Service Award by the Biophysical Society. A
lifelong student and an inveterate teacher, Dr. Gunn was enthusiastic about
many branches of knowledge, from British history to Japanese (a language he
started studying in his early fifties). In his last two years of life, Dr.
Gunn designed and built a cottage on Torch Lake in Michigan, the same place
where he first met his wife 48 years ago this summer. Never afraid to swim
against the stream, he is remembered by his colleagues as a man with an
unswerving commitment to science and by his family as a warm, funny, and
devoted husband and father. He will be much missed. A memorial service will
be held on Saturday, July 9 at 2:00 pm at Emory University's Cannon Chapel.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations should be sent to the
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Wages & Sons Stone Mountain
Chapel, 770-469-9811
Institutional Obituary
Dr. Robert B. Gunn,Professor and Chairman of the
Department of Physiology and Professor of Medicine, died June, 27, 2005
following a lengthy illness. Dr. Gunn enjoyed one of the longest tenures of
any School of Medicine chair, having served in that position since joining
the faculty in 1981.
Always a strong advocate for his department, Dr. Gunn
also used his leadership in the Council of Chairs to provide passionate
support for the highest standards of academic performance and integrity in
the School of Medicine. His service to the School, University, and
community were exemplary.
From the very beginning of his tenure at Emory, Dr.
Gunn was a strong supporter of interdisciplinary collaboration in the School
of Medicine. Upon first assuming his chairmanship, he said, "I favor the
notion of forming a community of scholars at Emory in which the associations
between individuals are not regulated by their appointments – their salary
sources -- but are based upon their intellectual and pedagogic interests.
In that respect, this department hopefully will be able to contribute
greatly to interdisciplinary fields such as cellular biology and
neurobiology." Indeed, Dr. Gunn enthusiastically and energetically promoted
both individual and collaborative scholarship among his faculty. He
established strong ties with other basic science and clinical science
departments and led and participated in program project grants with the
Department of Medicine for more than ten years. His own research, for which
he was internationally recognized, involved the mechanisms and regulation of
the transport of small molecules cross cell membranes, such as the transport
of chloride, bicarbonate, sodium, and potassium ions across the membranes of
human red blood cells. As a member since 1997 of the Teaching and Education
Strategic Planning Steering Committee, he also played an active role in
curriculum planning for the School of Medicine and was a strong influence in
the formation of the Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical
Sciences, which joined faculty across departmental guidelines in graduate
education and research.
A distinguished researcher and teacher, Dr. Gunn
directed Emory's Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D. Program) for
13 years, from 1984 to 1997, and was instrumental in the program's vigorous
growth during that time and its continued success.
Dr. Gunn was principal investigator of the
Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Program from 2000
until 2005, an NIH-supported program that linked Emory with five top
minority-serving institutions in Atlanta. Called FIRST (Fellowships in
Research and Science Teaching), the program provided interdisciplinary
training to postdoctoral fellows, giving them the foundation for
investigating cellular and molecular mechanisms, mentored teaching
opportunities, and the chance to expand their research. The FIRST program
aimed to significantly increase the number of graduates who are well
prepared to work in academia or industry in a specific area of research and
to teach in universities and colleges serving minority students.
Before joining Emory's faculty, Dr. Gunn was on the
faculty of the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago from
1975 to 1981 and on the faculty of the Duke University Medical Center from
1971 to 1975. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of
Michigan in 1961 with a degree in biophysics, and received his M.D. degree
from Harvard Medical School in 1966. He completed an internship at Beth
Israel Hospital in Boston and a fellowship in the Biophysical Laboratories
at Harvard Medical School. Earlier appointments included fellowships and
research posts at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark; the National
Science Foundation -- NATO Fellowship; and the U.S. Public Health Service.
He was a commissioned officer in the Public Health Service from 1967 to 1969
and served at the National Institute of Mental Health as a research
scientist for the Theoretical Statistics and Mathematics Section of the
Biometry Branch.
Dr. Gunn was on the editorial board of the American
Journal of Physiology and the journal of Renal Physiology and was a
manuscript reviewer for numerous journals. He previously served in many
national leadership roles in physiology, including positions as President of
the Society of General Physiologists and President of the Association of
Chairs of Departments of Physiology.
Details about a memorial service will be provided
later. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations should be
sent to the Winship Cancer Institute in Dr. Gunn's name.
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