George Hoyt Whipple (August 28, 1878 – February 1, 1976) was an American physician, pathologist, biomedical researcher, and medical school educator and administrator. Whipple shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 with George Richards Minot and William Parry Murphy "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anemia". This makes Whipple the first of several Nobel laureates affiliated with the University of Rochester.
Early life
Whipple was born to Ashley Cooper Whipple and Frances Anna Hoyt in Ashland, New Hampshire. Whipple's father died from pneumonia or typhoid fever when George was just shy of two years old. This left Whipple to be raised by his mother, Frances, and grandmother, Frances Moody Hoyt, who impressed on him the value of hard work and education. His excellence in science was exemplified by his election to Sigma Xi honor society and graduation with senior honors. In his autobiography, Whipple describes Mendel as "an unusual man who exerted a strong influence on me ... work with him was exciting and never to be forgotten". Rhees was so determined to recruit Whipple, he personally flew to UC San Francisco to offer him the opportunity to build the medical school from the ground up.
Retirement
In 1953, at 75 years old, Whipple retired from the Deanship, and retirement from the university would follow in 1955. In his autobiography, A Dozen Doctors, Whipple wrote, "I would be remembered as a teacher". He spent his retirement years dabbling in pathology department and medical school activities at the University of Rochester, but returned to his outdoors-man roots, filling his time with pheasant hunting, salmon fishing on the Margaree River, and tarpon fishing off the coast in Florida. The Whipples also had a deep friendship with George Eastman, founder of Rochester-based Eastman Kodak.
Whipple's research
Over the course of his career, Whipple authored or co-authored more than 300 publications.
Whipple received honorary doctorates from several American and international Universities, including the Universities of Athens and Glasgow.