American Journal of Hypertension 28(8) August 2015 955 In MeMorIaM

doi:10.1093/ajh/hpv089 John has been variously described as an inspiration, mentor, teacher, friend (fiend—a typo?), charming, warm, enthusi-astic, visionary scientist, pioneer, innovator, egalitarian, and golfer. At other times he was called street fighter, competi-tor, and some unprintables. I believe he was all of these, and more. John was born in 1924 just north of New York City to a successful Irish family. He lived through the Great Depression, the loss of both parents as a teenager, and World War II—for which he volunteered (to get “a crack at the enemy! ” according to the Yonkers Herald). Instead, the army sent him to Cornell Medical College—they needed doctors. In 1948 he moved uptown to Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (P&S) the home of several Nobel prizes. There he met his mentor—Dr Robert Loeb, Chairman of Medicine—who transformed the undisciplined, irrever-ent, cocky young physician–golfer into a widely respected clinical scientist. JOHN AS A MENTOR John did not consider himself a mentor. Instead he had a canny way of seeing a person’s potential, fostering it, then using it to his advantage. We all benefited one way or another. Thus, in 1959, I started working in John’s lab with a new B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry from Glasgow University. Nancy Atkinson, my lab supervisor, insisted that everything be done right—no exceptions, no excuses. After a year or two measuring urine sodium, extracting aldosterone from 24-hour urines and running paper chromatography, John assigned me to the biochemistry department where a ster-oid chemist was trying to simplify the method for meas-uring aldosterone. When the project stalled, much to my surprise and consternation John decided I could do the job. He introduced me to leaders in the field and showed me how to pick their brains. We spent many evenings at the nearby Armory Bar and Grill designing and reviewing experiments over martinis and shrimp scampi. In 1965, I presented m