Dear Members of the HMS and HSDM Community:
I am deeply saddened to share the news that John T. Potts Jr., the Jackson Professor of Clinical Medicine, Emeritus, at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, has passed away at the age of 94.
John was a monumental figure within the Harvard Medical ecosystem and especially at Mass General, where he made notable contributions as a scientist, clinician, and academic leader. He transformed the field of calcium metabolism in 1966 when he discovered that parathyroid hormone (PTH) is, in John’s own words, a “sensitive thermostat for minute-to-minute regulation of calcium.” The revelation that when serum calcium falls, PTH rises, and vice versa, laid the foundation for a series of translational advances to improve the management of primary hyperparathyroidism and osteoporosis.
Beyond his scientific achievements, John was a highly influential chief of the Endocrinology Division at Mass General and later served as chair of medicine and physician-in-chief at Mass General. John “grew up” at Mass General, having trained there as a resident under the formidable Fuller Albright, who stoked John’s interest in endocrinology and metabolism. After a stint at the NIH (under future Nobel laureate Christian Anfinsen), where John successfully led a team of protein chemists in the difficult task of elucidating the complete amino-acid sequence of bovine PTH, John felt the call to return “home.”
John’s stewardship propelled the Endocrinology Division at Mass General into international prominence as a haven for promising young investigators, giving them free rein to direct large subspecialty groups. He established training relationships with MIT, created a robust NIH-funded physician-scientist program known as the MGH Society of Research Fellows, advocated for partnerships with industry, and channeled significant energy into recruiting greater numbers of physicians from groups underrepresented in medicine. He is widely credited with launching the era of molecular endocrinology at Mass General and nurturing the careers of many leading figures in academic medicine, including Joel Habener, who would discover and develop GLP-1 as a key molecule implicated in type 2 diabetes and obesity.
On a personal note, John was Chair of the Department of Medicine when I trained at Mass General as an intern and resident and then later served as chief resident under John directly. He took a keen interest in my professional development and assumed a many-decades-long role as a key mentor in my career. I recall the year 2000, when I was running a lab as a Whitehead Fellow at the MIT-affiliated Whitehead Institute while serving as an attending in the Mass General Hematology/Oncology Division. I hadn’t yet hit my stride scientifically and was questioning whether I could succeed as a physician-scientist within the HMS-MIT system. John listened intensely and offered to support me in a range of career options. John’s confidence in me played a major role in my decision to remain in academic medicine.
John was an indefatigable cheerleader and a tireless optimist who possessed uncanny observational faculties. With apparent effortlessness, he was able to identify outstanding scientific collaborators, cultivate mentees’ untapped strengths, and recognize fertile terrain for inquiry. “It is one thing to recognize these opportunities; it is another to bring them to fruition,” wrote J. Larry Jameson (who served as chief of the Mass General Thyroid Division and is now president of the University of Pennsylvania) in a 2013 tribute published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation when John was awarded the George M. Kober Medal by the Association of American Physicians. “The latter characteristic results from John’s enthusiasm, warmth, and willingness to share credit.”
John had an engaging smile that reflected his unfailingly optimistic outlook. I was privileged to witness that smile one last time when I visited John in the hospital earlier this week. John expressed that he was at peace and had lived a full life. Mass General, Harvard Medical School, and indeed all of medicine are the better for it.
Our hearts go out to John’s beloved wife Susanne, his children and grandchildren, and his dear friends and colleagues around the world.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University