ARLINGTON, Va., July 20, 2004 -- George W. Thorn, M.D., a world-renowned physician who changed the way kidney disease is treated and whose vision inspired The Whitaker Foundation for nearly two decades, died last month in Massachusetts. He was 98.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Dr. Thorn, but very thankful to have benefited from his wisdom and guidance for so many years, " said Whitaker Foundation President Peter G. Katona, Sc.D.

Thorn was associated with the foundation from its inception in 1975 through the early 1990’s and played a major role in defining its mission. For 14 years, he served as chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), which reviewed all applications and progress reports in the Biomedical Engineering Research Grant Program.

"George guided the foundation from the very beginning when it was making awards only in the Boston area," said Howard Morgan, M.D., the Evan Pugh Professor of Physiology, Emeritus, at Pennsylvania State University and former SAC member.

"He extended the program to the eastern half of the country and then made it a national program," Morgan said. "He was very focused on what the foundation was going to do and that helped account for its great success."

Morgan, as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in the 1950s, also knew Thorn as HHMI's director of research. "He would come and see you and talk about what you were doing. He was genuinely interested and well informed about what was going on."

In 1993, the foundation created The George W. Thorn Award, to honor outstanding work by a Whitaker investigator. The Thorn Award carried a $10,000 grant to the recipient’s university for research support.

A renowned clinician and educator, Thorn was a major leader in advancing the field of endocrinology and organ transplant. He is credited with bringing the first kidney dialysis machine to the United States and organizing the team that performed the first successful human organ transplant in 1954.

He developed a cortisone treatment for the debilitating and sometimes-fatal Addison's Disease, a failure of the adrenal glands that affected President John F. Kennedy. Before the use of cortisone, patients received an adrenal extract from animals, which did little to relieve symptoms.

Thorn was born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1906 and earned his M.D. from the University of Buffalo in 1929. He held academic appointments at the University of Buffalo, Harvard Medical School, The Ohio State University, The Johns Hopkins University, and the Royal College of Physicians in Great Britain.

He was physician-in-chief at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (now Brigham and Women's Hospital) for 30 years and was Hersey Professor of The Theory and Practice of Physick, the nation's oldest chair in medicine, at Harvard Medical School.

The author of more than 400 publications, Thorn held 13 honorary degrees from Harvard, Boston University, Temple University, New York Medical College, the University of Geneva, and others.

Thorn was a founding editor and editor-in-chief of Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine, a landmark medical publication, and helped establish and later presided over the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

He is survived by his son, Weston Thorn, daughter-in-law, Karen, two grandchildren, and two stepchildren.