Medical expert wore honours lightly:JOHN FEELY, who has died aged 61, was a distinguished pharmacologist and academic whose untimely death is a major loss for his family, his friends and for his colleagues at St James's Hospital and Trinity College, Dublin.
He was born in Limerick where his father, Michael, was a well-known doctor who was attached to St John’s Hospital. His mother Mary (neé McMahon) came from a prominent local business family. He had five siblings – two older brothers, Michael and Morgan who also studied medicine and three younger sisters Mary, Martha and Anne.
He received his secondary education at St Munchin’s College and then moved to Dublin in 1965 to begin his medical studies at UCD. On the basis of his outstanding results at final examinations in 1971, he was selected as an intern to work in the professorial units of surgery and medicine in the Mater Hospital. Professor Feely continued his professional development in the Mater and he also began to achieve excellence in research. He was awarded an MD by thesis by the National University of Ireland in 1979. He was subsequently awarded several scholarships, prizes and fellowships including a Japanese Pharmacological Society Fellowship and a Wellcome Young investigator award for clinical research.
He pursued his higher professional training at one of the best clinical pharmacology departments in the United Kingdom, Ninewells Hospital and Medical School in Dundee. He was awarded an international fellowship in clinical pharmacology in 1979, which enabled him to study at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.
Appointed to the chair of pharmacology and therapeutics at Trinity College in 1984, he built up a very fine Department of Clinical Pharmacology with a small number of enthusiastic and very able departmental colleagues. From the very beginning he encouraged research and there was soon a continuous flow of high quality papers from the department. He also developed his own personal research and he became an international expert on the treatment of hypertension.
He published over 300 research papers in leading international journals such as the British medical journal, The Lancet, the Journal of the American Medical Associationand The New England Journal of Medicine.
He is the author of a very successful book, New Drugs, which has gone through several editions. He was invited to lecture on his subject in many countries throughout the world.
John Feely balanced his research with his clinical work first as a physician to Dr Steevens’ Hospital and then to St James’s Hospital. He established model hypertension and lipid clinics at St James’s Hospital. He worked hard to establish protocols which ensured that all patients received excellent care. His clinical reputation was such that many of the doctors, nurses and other staff chose him with confidence as their physician when they were ill.
He served on numerous national and international committees including the National Drugs Advisory Board, the Health Research Board and the Irish Heart Foundation. He was the driving force behind the establishment of three major initiatives: the National Medicines Information Centre, The National Pharmacoeconomics Unit and the Centre for Advanced Clinical Therapeutics. He was a member of several international learned societies including the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and the European Society of Hypertension.
He was registrar to the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland from 1989 to 1996 and he is generally recognised as one of the most effective doctors to fill this position. He helped organise an exhibition held in the National Gallery of Ireland in 1992 to celebrate the tercentenary of the granting of the Royal Charter to the College of Physicians.
John Feely was held in great affection by many people. He was a man of great integrity. He approached everything with fairness and balance and he was always very generous with his time to the many who sought his counsel. He always managed to express his point of view without undermining friendships and he had a playful and disarming sense of humour.
However his gentleness could never be mistaken for weakness as he had incredible tenacity when he had an important goal to achieve.
He valued each person as an individual and he treated everyone as equal. He wore his honours and achievements lightly and he was one of the most unassuming of men. He was held in high esteem by his patients, his colleagues and his staff and admired by students and junior doctors as a great teacher and mentor.
He was above all a family man who drew great strength from the love he shared with his wife Deirdre and their four children Claire, Michael, Robert and John.
Professor John Feely: born November 20th 1947; died June 10th 2009