In the early days of John Murray's career, tuberculosis – previously the primary concern of pulmonary medicine – was steadily decreasing in the United States. Ever the forward thinker, the young MD saw opportunity in the emptying wards of San Francisco General Hospital's TB building.

In 1966, he came to San Francisco from Los Angeles to set up the Intensive Care Unit and breathing laboratory at SFGH, and start a pulmonary clinical training program in conjunction with Julius Comroe, MD, at the renowned UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute. Many of the scientists they trained went on to hold top academic positions in medical schools and research institutes throughout the world.

Today, despite years of work in Africa with AIDS patients and a primary residence now in Paris, the man who co-edited the premier textbook on respiratory medicine returns to SFGH every summer to volunteer as an attending physician in the ICU he started almost 40 years ago.

"I keep coming back here because I love it so much," he says. "SF General has been a major feature of my professional life, and I can't imagine being any other place."

The UCSF Department of Medicine is setting up an endowed chair in pulmonary medicine to honor Murray, with the goal of expanding it during the coming year to a distinguished professorship. Flattered that the chair was established in his name, Murray and his wife, Diane, contributed $250,000 toward its funding. This inspired family friend William H. Hurt, together with his foundation, the WHH Foundation, to match it. The person who holds the future chair will serve on the faculty at SFGH.

"Dr. Murray is a titan in the field of academic medicine, and we consider ourselves honored to have worked and learned under him," says Courtney Broaddus, MD, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at SFGH. "Across the country and the world, Dr. Murray is recognized as a driving force in pulmonary medicine over the last decades."

Murray knows that providing solid financial support for even one person on the busy county hospital's faculty will ease the strain on those already there, and the fact that funding is assured will help attract a top-notch physician. "This is a very, very special place," says Murray, "that does high quality work under difficult circumstances. I hope my contribution will be an inducement for others to help further the fundraising. I want people to see that this is a serious effort worth contributing to."

For more information about the John F. Murray Distinguished Professorship, contact Helen Dannelly at 415/502-6293 or hdannelly@support.ucsf.edu.