September 29, 2003

BIRMINGHAM, AL — UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) and the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System, have established an endowed professorship in memory of the late Dr. John Whitaker, former chair of the department of neurology in the School of Medicine at UAB and president of the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation.

“This endowed professorship will honor the life and legacy of John Whitaker,” said Dr. Will Deal, dean of the School of Medicine. “He was an outstanding physician, and administrator and renowned for his research efforts in understanding and treating multiple sclerosis.”

Whitaker, who died in 2001, came to UAB in 1985 to serve as professor and chair of neurology. He was in an unprecedented third term as president of the Health Services Foundation at the time of his death.

Throughout his distinguished career Whitaker received numerous honors and awards, including membership in Alpha Omega Alpha and receipt of a Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award. He was given the UAB President’s Award posthumously in 2001. The administration building of the Health Services Foundation was renamed to honor Whitaker and is now known as the John N. Whitaker Building.

A native of Memphis, Whitaker received his medical degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine and obtained neurology training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1970. He came to UAB following service with the National Institutes of Health, the University of Minnesota and the University of Tennessee in Memphis.

If you would like to contribute to the John N. Whitaker, M.D. Endowed Professorship, please contact Brett Scullen at (205) 975-7240.