LAUSR

Dr. Anthony (Tony) Tavill, a world-renowned physician and scientist in the field of hepatology, died peacefully on July 21, 2016, at his home in Shaker Heights, Ohio, surrounded by his loving family and friends. He had just turned 80 years old. He is survived by his loving wife of 57 years, Anne; his three children, Leonore, Michael, and Stephanie; and his six grandchildren, Zachary, Zoe, Jake, Sam, Caleb, and Emma. Dr. Tavill was born in July 1936 inManchester, England. He was the firstborn son of David and Edith Tavill, who were first-generation children of immigrants from Lithuania and czarist Russia. Still a young child at the outbreak of the Second World War, he became acutely aware of Luftwaffe bombing raids on this northern industrial city and quite an expert at allied aircraft spotting as planes from airfields in the north made both daylight and nighttime bombing raids into Germany and occupied Europe. Tony did not escape these times without personal sacrifice and injury that resulted in hearing loss and ulcer disease. These vivid childhood memories, which he would happily discuss when asked, were never dampened by any real sense of fear, although undoubtedly he was influenced by wartime austerities, as were all his companions and their families. Tony graduated M.B.Ch.B. at the top of his class from Victoria University Medical School in 1960, one of three students in the class awarded honors. He had no difficulty in indulging in a little name-dropping as one of the other two honors students is eponymously remembered by having a syndrome named after him (Emery syndrome, a form of muscular dystrophy). Following graduation in 1960, Tony was offered a prized position as a house physician to Dr. Henry T. Howat, an acclaimed pancreatologist who helped pioneer the secretin-pancreozymin test of pancreatic function. His senior residents were Ken Wormsley and Les Turnberg (later to become Lord Turnberg, president of the Royal College of Physicians). These mentors and a consummate colorectal surgeon, Dr. H.T. Simmons, provided during this early postgraduate residency experience the encouragement and impetus to pursue a career in gastroenterology. Paradoxically, however, the initial stimulus to research writing came with Tony’s first publication in 1964. This study on idiopathic myoglobinuria was accomplished during his second year of medical residency while on the service of Professor (later Sir Douglas) Black, a renowned nephrologist and chair of medicine at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. His mentor, John Evanson, encouraged submission of the manuscript to The Lancet, which promptly rejected it. Resubmission to the New England Journal of Medicine received favorable reviews and a laudatory letter of acceptance from the editor, Dr. Franz Ingelfinger. Several years later, Anthony S. Tavill, M.D., F.A.C.P., F.R.C.P., F.A.C.G.