





































       V37 N1 / 2022 

©2022 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved.  
ISSN 2163-5315

AMWAJournal.org     45

ABSTRACT
For much of its history, the American Medical Writers 

Association (AMWA) bestowed 4 awards in honor of 4 of 

its members: Harold Swanberg, MD, the founder of the 

Association; Walter Alvarez, MD, in retirement, a nationally 

syndicated health columnist; Eric Martin, PhD, a pharma-

cist instrumental in professionalizing regulatory writing; 

and John P. McGovern, MD, a philanthropist who sup-

ported initiatives in biomedical communication. However, 

the details of the lives of these men are unknown to most 

AMWA members. Accordingly, this biography describes the 

life and accomplishments of John P. McGovern, to recognize 

his achievements and to contribute to the history of the pro-

fession and of the Association.

 

John Phillip McGovern, MD 

(1921-2007), was a physician, 

teacher, researcher, human-

itarian, businessman, inves-

tor, and philanthropist who 

contributed to the fields of 

allergy and immunology, 

widely promoted Sir William 

Osler’s principles of human-

istic medicine, added to the 

size and scope of Houston’s 

Texas Medical Center, and 

enhanced the quality of life in 

Houston through several major gifts to the city.1

 The McGovern Allergy Clinic was at one time the larg-

est private allergy clinic in the country.1 Its success and 

McGovern’s astute investments in stocks and real estate 

made him enormously wealthy, wealth that he then 

donated liberally to support dozens of projects that fur-

thered the advancement of medicine and community life. 

The John P. McGovern Foundation, now headed by his wife, 

Kathy, continues to support several worthwhile projects.

 In the American Medical Writers Association, the John 

P. McGovern Award, funded in 1985 by a grant from the 

McGovern Foundation, “is presented to a member or non-

member of AMWA to recognize a preeminent contribution 

to any of the various modes of medical communication.”2 

The range of candidates and the nature of the contributions 

suitable for this award is consistent with John’s own wide 

range of interests and causes.

(From the author: unless otherwise noted, all information 

here comes from John P. McGovern, MD,1 a definitive biog-

raphy written by his friend, Bryant Boutwell, DrPH. This 

biography is the source of many other accounts of his life.)

GROWING UP IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
John (Jack, to his friends and family) was born in 

Washington, DC in 1921, the only child of Francis Xavier 

McGovern, a surgeon in the US Public Health Service, and 

Lotti Brown McGovern, a most competent housekeeper 

and gracious hostess. He was also very close with his mater-

nal grandmother, “Granny Brown,” the kind of woman who 

would (and did) open her kitchen during the Republican 

Great Depression to feed families in need. In addition, his 

second cousin, the actress Helen Hayes, seemed to have 

been both a confidant and an inspiration to him. The close 

and supportive nature of the McGovern, Brown, and Hayes 

families provided several role models of nurturing, hard 

work, enjoyment, and caring for others.

 Even in childhood, John was unusually deliberate, care-

ful, perfectionistic, and above all, driven. As a boy, he liked 

baseball, football, soccer, stamp collecting (he eventually 

sold his collection to pay for college expenses), fishing, 

camping (he was a Boy Scout), and playing marbles. Not 

the informal play that many children enjoy from time to 

time, but, as he told his biographer, the “real game of mar-

bles—ringer. A 10-foot circle with 13 marbles in a cross at its 

center. I’m talking lag lines, pitch lines, and knuckling down 

to knock the most marbles at center from the ring.”

 In fact, his approach to marbles is telling. At age 9, John 

spent long hours shooting marbles until he was very skilled. 

Tom Lang / Principal, Tom Lang Communications and Training International, Kirkland, WA

John P. McGovern, MD – Physician, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

BIOGRAPHY

John P. McGovern, MD.

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     46John P. McGovern, MD–Physician, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

He, like most boys, played with marbles made of cheap 

glass. However, some marbles are made of quartz—the 

prized agates—and John was set on collecting agates. He hit 

on a strategy that involved an attractive challenge. He would 

bet a bottle of glass marbles against 1 or 2 agates. Few boys 

could resist the possibility of winning so many marbles, 

even if they were glass. John’s strategy worked—within a 

year, he owned most of the agates in the neighborhood. The 

story illustrates the traits he would carry into adulthood: 

competitiveness and confidence, thoughtful and careful 

planning, hard work and discipline, and collecting and pre-

serving things of value.

MEDICAL TRAINING
After graduating high school in 1939, John matriculated 

into Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He began 

medical school in 1942, after completing 3 years of pre-med 

courses. Duke did not require a bachelor’s degree for admis-

sion to medical school, but students could earn a bachelor’s 

degree in medicine en route to the doctorate in medicine if 

they conducted research while in medical school, an option 

John would take.

 Entrance to medical school, of course, involved an inter-

view. In this case, John’s interviewer was Wilburt Davison, 

MD, the founding dean of the medical school and a Rhodes 

scholar. For John, the interview marked the beginning of 

medical school and of an important and lifelong friendship. 

At Oxford, Dr Davison had studied with Sir William Osler, 

considered by many to be the founder of modern medicine. 

The mentorship of Dr Davison and the legacy of Sir William 

Osler would profoundly affect John throughout his life.

 John loved medical school. The intensity of an accel-

erated program, the complexity of the topics, and the long 

days and short nights challenged him intellectually and 

physically. He was also becoming interested in research, 

and not just because it would complete his bachelor’s 

degree. Duke was one of many universities that offered the 

Borden Prize for Medical Research, which was awarded 

to medical students with the best original research proj-

ect completed in the final year of study. (The award was 

created by the Borden, the one who developed condensed 

milk just before the Civil War and started what became the 

Borden Food Company. The company ceased operations in 

2001.) The $500 prize (about $7,500 today) was actually less 

important than the prestige of winning the award. 

 John, who was becoming interested in pediatrics, 

decided to study a particular aspect of pertussis. Before bac-

teriologists Pearl Kendrick, ScD and Grace Eldering, PhD 

developed a vaccine, pertussis was the deadliest childhood 

disease at the time. However, in the early 1940s, the vaccine 

was given only to children older than 6 years. John helped 

develop a test to determine whether infants 3 to 6 months 

old would produce antibodies to the Bordetella pertussis 

bacterium and thus be eligible for the vaccination.3 This 

award made John Duke University’s first recipient of the 

Borden Award. From then on, he always found time to con-

duct his own research as part of his practice of medicine.

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING AND TEACHING
From Duke, John —now John P. McGovern, MD—began 

an internship in pediatrics at Yale-New Haven General 

Hospital in 1945. After the first year, however, he was called 

for active duty in the US Army and served in veterans’ hos-

pitals from 1946 through 1948. During this time, he worked 

in rehabilitation medicine during the day and worked at 

night helping 2 local pediatricians in private practice, an 

experience he enjoyed and would come back to later in life.

 After leaving the Army in 1948, John returned to Duke 

to complete a residency in pediatrics. Eventually, Dean 

Davison offered him a fellowship that included a year of 

study in Europe, first at Guy’s Hospital in London, then at 

the Hôpital des Enfants Malades in Paris. During this year, 

he developed a strong interest in the history of medicine, 

which in 1996 would result in a bequest that established 

the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research 

Center at the Texas Medical Center Library.

 When John returned from his year abroad, he had 

received probably the best training in pediatrics at the time. 

In 1949, he accepted a position at the George Washington 

University School of Medicine. A year later, he was an 

Assistant Professor and Chief of Pediatrics at the university’s 

affiliated hospital, the Children’s Hospital of the District  

of Columbia. 

 In 1951, he received a rare and coveted John and Mary 

R. Markle Scholar Award. In its 22 year history, the award 

was given to only 500 physicians. The 5 year, $30,000 award 

covered research expenses for talented young physicians 

who wished to stay in academic medicine rather than move 

into private practice. However, his increasing workload at 

the hospital and especially administrative tasks meant less 

time for research and more time completing paperwork. It 

took the threat of a promotion that would mean even more 

paperwork to persuade him to take his award and move on.

 Once again, Dr Davison worked the networks and dis-

covered an allergist at Tulane University in New Orleans 

who was looking for someone with John’s training. So, in 

1954, John took a position as assistant professor at Tulane 

University and went to work in Charity Hospital.

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     47John P. McGovern, MD–Physician, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

 Charity Hospital had been providing indigent care in 

New Orleans since 1736. Moved and rebuilt several times, 

it was chronically underfunded. The situation was made 

worse in the 1930s when the governor decreed that the hos-

pital would serve all of the state’s indigent patients. In 1936, 

the hospital logged almost 75,000 admissions, making it the 

busiest hospital in the country with some of the most chal-

lenging patients.

 Some 20 years later, in the mid-1950s, the workload 

was better but remained heavy. The hospital had 3,300 

beds but treated as many as 4,500 patients on a given day. 

Children were put 2 to a bed, and adults were put on gur-

neys between standard beds, so a 20-bed ward function-

ally became a 40-bed ward. The outpatient clinic saw 5,000 

patients a day.

 Still, John was able to conduct his Markle-related 

research after hours, although it made the days much 

longer, and he enjoyed his colleagues, who were dedicated 

physicians carrying the same workload. During this period, 

he decided to become an allergist and passed the American 

Medical Association’s board examination without any 

advanced training in the field—then and now, a rare accom-

plishment—making him board-certified in both pediat-

rics and allergy. He remained at Tulane until 1956, when a 

favorite professor from medical school asked him to come 

to Houston where the potential for patient care, teaching, 

and research was good and getting better. So, at age 35, John 

moved to Houston.

THE MCGOVERN ALLERGY AND ASTHMA CLINIC
In the 1950s, flush with oil money, Houston was a rapidly 

growing city that attracted talented people from several 

fields, especially medicine. The M. D. Anderson Hospital 

and Tumor Center (now the University of Texas M. D. 

Anderson Cancer Center), the Baylor College of Medicine, 

the University of Texas Dental School at Houston, Baylor St. 

Luke’s Medical Center, Rice University, and Texas Children’s 

Hospital, among other institutions, were in various stages of 

development.

 When John bought the practice of a retiring allergist, the 

McGovern Allergy Clinic was born. The practice flourished. 

Soon, the increased number of patients required hiring 

additional physicians. Their job interviews, all conducted 

by John himself, often went for 2 hours or more, and some 

applicants had 2 or even more interviews. During these 

interviews, they learned about John, Dr Davison, Duke 

University, and Osler’s approach to medicine, among other 

things. The result of this hiring process was a close-knit 

staff of pediatric allergists who shared Osler’s approach to 

medicine and John’s work ethic. During this period, he also 

formed the Texas Allergy Research Foundation.

 One new employee 

caught John’s atten-

tion. Hired as an 

office manager, Kathy 

Galbreath proved a 

most capable worker 

who could also cope 

with her employer’s 

perfectionism and 

work schedule. The 

2 were married in 

1961. When asked to 

name the highlights 

of his life, John would 

provide a standard 

answer: his friendship 

with Dean Davison, the 

influence of Osler, the day he quit smoking in 1963, the day 

he quit drinking in 1984, and his marriage to Kathy. But, he 

always added, “not necessarily in that order.”

 John initially held faculty appointments at Baylor 

College of Medicine and at the University of Texas 

Postgraduate School of Medicine. He eventually served for 

22 years as Chief of the pediatrics department’s allergy sec-

tion at Baylor and for 16 years as Chief of Allergy Services 

at Texas Children’s Hospital. He was also a professor at the 

University of Texas at Houston and Chair of the University’s 

Department of the History of Medicine.

 After 15 years, thanks to quality care and good busi-

ness practices, the McGovern clinic had become the larg-

est private allergy clinic in the country.4 John also shrewdly 

invested in real estate, at one time owning much of the land 

that would eventually be occupied by the world’s largest 

medical complex, The Texas Medical Center. (Today, the 

center occupies nearly 2 square miles, is home to some 60 

institutions, and employs more than 100,000 people.)5 In 

addition, he also successfully invested in stocks, eventu-

ally becoming quite wealthy. In 1961, he had created what 

would become the John P. McGovern Foundation with 

$10,000. At the time of his death, the foundation had $180 

million in assets.

PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
In addition to practicing medicine, John remained a com-

mitted educator and researcher throughout his career. He 

wrote more than 250 articles and 26 books in the medical 

sciences and humanities, was president or chief elected  

John P. (1921-2007) and Kathrine G. 
McGovern. (Used with permission from 
the John P. McGovern Foundation.)

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     48John P. McGovern, MD–Physician, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

officer of 15 professional medical societies,6 served on the 

editorial boards of numerous journals, and received dozens 

of awards. 

 During 1968 to 1969, John was president of the American 

College of Allergists (now the American College of Allergy, 

Asthma, and Immunology) and was Editor-in-Chief of the 

college’s journals. During his presidency, the college was 

struggling to achieve a new status as an independent med-

ical specialty, with its own special training requirements 

and board-certification process. John was instrumental in 

directing the development of the college’s application to 

American Medical Association’s Advisory Board for Medical 

Specialties. The field became a certified specialty in 1974.

 In the late 1960s, John and a Washington, DC physi-

cian named Alfred Henderson independently became 

concerned that the emphasis on science in medical edu-

cation would supplant the study of the humanities. When 

Dr Davison brought the 2 men together, they founded The 

American Osler Society in 1970 to memorialize Osler’s life 

and teachings. The John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian 

Medicine was created in 2001 with a $5 million gift to pro-

vide endowments for 5 William Osler Scholars, an amount 

later augmented with a second gift of $2.5 million.

 Also, in the tradition of Sir William Osler, John worked 

to support medical libraries. In 1970, he was appointed by 

President Richard Nixon to the board of the National Library 

of Medicine. He was Chairman of the Board of Regents 

of the Library from 1970 to 1974 and chaired the external 

grants program after leaving the board. He also served on 

the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of 

Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism from 1987 to 1991.

 Several awards have been established in his name, 

among them, The Houston Academy of Medicine’s John P. 

McGovern Compleat Physician Award and from the Office 

of the President of The University of Texas Medical Branch, 

the annual John P. McGovern Lifetime Achievement Award 

in Oslerian Medicine.

PHILANTHROPIC ACTIVITIES
John was as skillful in giving money away as he was in 

making it. The John P. McGovern Foundation continues to 

fund scholarships, lectureships, endowed professorships, 

distinguished faculty awards, and buildings to advance 

medical science throughout the country. It donated $6.5 

million to create a new McGovern-Davison Children’s 

Center at Duke University and $75 million to the University 

of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and 

its medical school, which was renamed the John P. and 

Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School.7 The foundation 

funded UTHealth’s McGovern Center for Humanities and 

Ethics and the McGovern Historical Center, which houses 

collections on the history of medical specialties, Texas med-

icine, North American public health, the development of 

the institutions and hospitals in the Texas Medical Center 

in Houston, and biographical information on Texas physi-

cians. The foundation has also endowed 26 annual Award 

Lectureships at universities in Texas and elsewhere, includ-

ing Duke, Harvard, Yale, the C. Everett Koop Institute at 

Dartmouth College, and Green College at Oxford University.

 The foundation has also established several public 

Houston landmarks, including McGovern Lake and the 

John P. McGovern Children’s Zoo in Hermann Park, and 

• The American Medical Association’s Special Award for 
Meritorious Service.

• The William A. Howe Award, the highest honor given by the 
American School Health Association

• A Private Sector Initiative Commendation, bestowed by 
President Ronald Reagan, for his lifetime of service in medi-
cine and philanthropy

• The Outstanding Scholarship in Health Care Award from the 
American Association of Colleges of Nurses

• The Surgeon General’s Medal for his lifetime of service, 
bestowed by Dr C. Everett Koop, at the time, the Surgeon 
General of the United States

• The R. Brinkly Smithers Gold Medal Award for outstand-
ing work and support in the field of alcoholism and drug 
abuse, from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug 
Dependence

• The Maurice Hirsch Award for Philanthropy
• The Royal Medallion of the Polar Star from Sweden
• L’Ordre National du Mérite from France 
• The Kemal Atatürk Gold Medal Distinguished Service 

Award bestowed by the Government of Turkey, and the first 
received by an American citizen

• Houston’s 2001 Distinguished Citizen of the Year
• The Distinguished Alumnus Award from Duke University
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of 

Science
• Fellow, American College of Physicians
• Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Physicians
• Distinguished Fellow, American Association of Allergy, 

Asthma, and Immunology
• Fellow, American Society of Addiction Medicine

A member of AMWA’s Southwest Chapter since 1961, John  
became an AMWA Fellow in 1967 and received the Associa-
tion’s highest honor, the Harold Swanberg Distinguished 
Service Award, in 1988.

Box. Prestigious Awards Received by John During His 43 Year Career1,6

http://www.amwajournal.org


AMWAJournal.org     49John P. McGovern, MD–Physician, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist

was a major donor in the early days of what became the 

McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science. In 

2017, a $20 million endowment created the Kathrine G. 

McGovern College of the Arts at the University of Houston,8 

the first college in the university to be named after a former 

student and also the first to be named after a woman.

CLOSING
By all accounts, John was a talented physician, teacher, and 

researcher. He was also personable, foresighted, deliber-

ate, driven, and above all, generous with his time as well as 

with his fortune.9 He made life better for hundreds of thou-

sands of children, medical students, patients, colleagues, 

and members of the public. In so doing, he, as always, was 

taking one of Osler’s principles to heart, “we are here to add 

what we can to life, not to get what we can from life.”10

Author declaration and disclosures: The author reports no 
commercial associations that may pose a conflict of interest in 
relation to this article.

Author contact: tomlangcom@aol.com

References

1.  Boutwell B. John P. McGovern, MD: A Lifetime of Stories. Texas 
A&M University Press; 2014.

2.  American Medical Writers Association. McGovern Award. 
American Medical Writers Association website. Accessed January 
11, 2022. https://www.amwa.org/Page/Recognition

3.   McGovern JP. Passive intraperitoneal mouse protection test in a 
study of immune response to H. pertussis vaccination. Pediatrics. 
1950;5(1)38-44.

4.   About McGovern: John P. McGovern Academy of Oslerian 
Medicine. UTMB website. Accessed January 11, 2022.  
https://www.utmb.edu/osler/about/about-mcgovern

5.   About us. Texas Medical Center website. Accessed January 11, 
2022. https://www.tmc.edu/about-tmc

6.   Medical Library Association. McGovern, John P. Medical Library 
Association website. Accessed January 11, 2022. https://www.
mlanet.org/blog/mcgovern-john-p

7.   McGovern Medical School. John P. McGovern Foundation 
renames McGovern Medical School. UT Health website. Accessed 
January 11, 2022. https://med.uth.edu/mcgovern-info/

8.   University of Houston. A College of the Arts for a City of the Arts. 
University of Houston website. Accessed January 11, 2022.  
https://www.uh.edu/kgmca

9.   In Memoriam. John P. McGovern, MD, 1921-2007. Ann Allergy 
Asthma Immunol. 2008;100(2):104-105. https://doi.org/10.1016/
S1081-1206(10)60417-6

10.  Osler W. Osler’s “A Way of Life” and Other Addresses, with 
Commentary and Annotations. Hinohara S, Niki H, eds. Duke 
University Press; 2001:301.

#AMWA2022 | Save the Date!
www.amwa.org/conference

SAVE THE DATE

Elevating health and well-being
through medical communication.

2022
AMWA

Medical Writing &
Communication
Conference
NOVEMBER 2-5, 2022
DENVER, CO

Trends and Opportunities for Medical Communicators

Join us November 2-5, 2022 in Denver, CO.
Gain new perspectives and reach new heights

in medical writing and editing. 

•  Advancing medical communication and building value
•  Emerging trends in the regulatory writing environment
•  Health communication strategies for elevating health 

literacy
•  Medical writing and editing for continuing education in 

the health professions

•  Preparing the next generation of medical writers and 
leaders

•  Progress and developments in scientific publications
•  Technology and innovation in medical communication
•  The medical communicator’s role in diversity, equity, 

and inclusion

#AMWA2022 education sessions will include timely and topics such as

#AMWA2022
www.amwa.org/conference

http://www.amwajournal.org
https://www.amwa.org/Page/Recognition
https://www.tmc.edu/about-tmc
https://www.mlanet.org/blog/mcgovern-john-p
https://www.mlanet.org/blog/mcgovern-john-p
https://med.uth.edu/mcgovern-info/ 
https://www.uh.edu/kgmca
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1081-1206(10)60417-6 
https://doi.org/10.1016/S1081-1206(10)60417-6 



