Obituary
William Allan Mahon August 20, 1929, to February 12, 1997
Stuart M. MacLeod, MD, PhD
Professor, Departments of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Medicine and Pediatrics, McMaster University; Director, Father Sean O'Sullivan Research Centre, St. Joseph's Hospital, Hamilton, Ont.
Clin Invest Med 1997; 20(3):196
Bill Mahon was one of the founding fathers of clinical pharmacology in Canada and an early leader in clinical drug investigation in Toronto. Bill graduated in medicine in Edinburgh in 1952 and emigrated to Canada in 1956. His training took him to Harvard University and the University of Alberta before he settled in Toronto in 1966. He spent the next 30 years of his career divided between the Toronto General Hospital and the University of Toronto Department of Pharmacology.
His research interests were astonishingly diverse. Early work on hepatic failure, cardiovascular and autonomic pharmacology soon gave way to a long-lasting and highly effective collaboration with Werner Kalow and other colleagues interested in studies of interindividual variation in drug biotransformation. Not content with pharmacogenetic work alone, Bill developed analytic expertise in using and improving on radioimmunoassay methods, which were novel in 1970, for important studies of digoxin and aminoglycosides.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Bill relished his role as the senior clinical pharmacologist in the Toronto system. He was a friend and mentor to many who passed through the Toronto General Hospital or who shared his enthusiasm for the challenge of improving drug therapy. Even when solutions to clinical investigation problems were elusive, Bill could be counted on for provocative insights and probing questions. He always had time for colleagues, fellows and students.
Dr. Mahon made signal contributions to the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Committee, as a member from 1983 to 1989 and as chair from 1989 to 1991. His clinical contributions, as a clinical pharmacologist, general internist and, later, as a pioneer in critical care medicine, were equally diverse. He also provided a strong element of public service to the Ontario Ministry of Health for several years as a member and then chair of the Drug Quality and Therapeutics Committee. He filled numerous administrative roles in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the Toronto Hospital and in 1988 became the Vice-President (Medical Affairs) of the Toronto HospitalGeneral Division. In 1989 he became the Director of the Clinical Trials Unit in the Centre for Cardiovascular Research at the Toronto Hospital.
Bill retired in 1995 but did not relinquish his many interests. He remained actively involved in a host of projects, ranging from the futuristic development of an electronic office record to the practicalities of defining optimal treatment for non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. In recent years, he had become particularly enthusiastic about the Cochrane Centre and was working closely with Dr. Allan Kitching and student volunteers on hand-searching the relevant cardiovascular literature as part of that massive undertaking.
Bill was a major figure in the development of clinical investigative science in Canada. He was also an important influence on many colleagues, whose sympathies go to Babs Mahon, their children and grandchildren.
