John Claiborne Floyd Jr.

John Claiborne Floyd, Jr.

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN - John Claiborne Floyd, Jr., M.D., University of Michigan Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine, age 79, passed away October 10, 2006 at his home in Ann Arbor, from complications of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). Diagnosis of PSP, in 1999, followed a preliminary diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease in 1998.

Dr. Floyd was born July 3, 1927 in Olla, Louisiana, the youngest of four children born to John Claiborne Floyd, agricultural instructor and principal of the Olla Standard High School, and Linnie Leora Gibson Floyd. In 1931 the family moved to Baton Rouge, LA where John Floyd, Sr. joined the faculty of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Agricultural School. Growing up in Baton Rouge, Dr. Floyd attended the Highland School and the LSU University High School; he was a Boy Scout, and a member of his high school track, basketball, and debate teams. He enjoyed hunting and fishing with his father.

Dr. Floyd graduated from LSU in the spring of 1949 with a B.S. in chemistry and began graduate studies in chemistry at the California Institute of Technology that autumn. In the fall of 1950 he enrolled at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA. Prior to beginning his medical studies, he spent three months working as a radiology technician in Jonesboro, LA. It was there that he met the choir director of the Jonesboro Baptist Church, Esther Louise Martin, daughter of Mildred B. and Roy O. Martin, Sr. of Pineville, LA. John and Esther were married at the First Baptist Church of Pineville on February 23, 1952.

In 1954 Dr. Floyd received an M.D. degree from the LSU School of Medicine. His medical internship, residency, and further postdoctoral training were completed at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor between 1954 and 1959. He spent the 1959-1960 academic year as an Instructor in Internal Medicine at the LSU School of Medicine, and in 1960 returned to Ann Arbor as a Fellow in the Endocrinology and Metabolism division of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center. It was at this time that he began to focus his attention on diabetes-related research and the treatment and care of diabetic patients; these interests were to become his life-long work. Dr. Floyd joined the University of Michigan medical faculty as an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, in the Endocrinology and Metabolism division, in 1961 and received full Professor status in 1970. Upon his retirement in 1992, Dr. Floyd was appointed Professor Emeritus of Internal Medicine; he continued to maintain an active professional life, serving as a reviewer for grant applications and professional journals and as an interviewer for prospective medical students, as well as participating in both local and international seminars and conferences.

Dr. Floyd's professional life combined research, teaching, and patient care. In the laboratory, he maintained an active research program centered on diabetes; he was an early investigator into the physiological role of human pancreatic polypeptide. As an educator, he lectured in graduate and postgraduate courses, oversaw student research, provided clinical training and supervision of medical Residents and Fellows, and spoke at national and international conferences on diabetes-related topics. As a practicing physician, Dr. Floyd was known for the personal care and attention he gave to each of his patients. His ability to formulate an incisive diagnostic question - and to listen carefully to the response - led him to excel in clinical work, while his soft-spoken manner and ready smile endeared him to his patients. As Director of the University of Michigan Diabetes Center Unit and Diabetes Center Unit Clinic (1977-1986), and Associate Director of the Michigan Diabetes Research and Training Center (1977-1986), his executive and interpersonal skills allowed him to help lead these centers into the forefront of diabetes-related research, education, and patient care.

Service to others was an important part of Dr. Floyd's ethic. As a young man he served his country through active duty in the U.S. Navy. He was an organizing member of the "Conference on Teaching of Ethics and Values" at the University of Michigan (1987-1993). He was an active and loyal member of the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor for more than fifty years. He taught both youth and adult Christian education classes, served as church Moderator and both as chairman and as a member of the Board of Trustees. Sunday mornings found him in the choir loft.

Music, both popular and classical, was an enthusiasm of Dr. Floyd's which he enjoyed with his wife, shared with those around him, and passed on to his children. He was an adept pianist and had a lovely baritone voice. He appreciated beauty in all its varied forms; one of his greatest pleasures was the opportunity that his career afforded him to travel, and to take in not only new scientific ideas, but new cultural experiences as well. Dr. Floyd was a student of the English language; to him, a carefully crafted sentence was not only an important tool of communication, but a thing of beauty in itself, and this aesthetic informed all of his written work. He enjoyed both the telling and the hearing of a good story, and was an articulate public speaker. Following in the footsteps of his father, he enjoyed gardening and brought the same meticulousness to the pruning of shrubs as he did to the practice of medicine. With the encouragement of his son, John III, Dr. Floyd rediscovered his love of fly-fishing in mid-life, and the father-and-son team took regular trout-fishing trips to the Au Sable and Pere Marquette rivers of northern Michigan; with the arrival of grandsons David, John IV ("Jack"), and Calvin, Dr. Floyd took immense pleasure in introducing each of them to the sport.

Dr. Floyd is survived by his wife of 54 years, Esther Martin Floyd, his children Elizabeth Floyd (James Gold) of Columbia, MD, Jennifer Aulie of Vienna, Austria, John C. Floyd III of Ann Arbor, and Melissa (Frederick) Whittington of Pineville, LA, sisters Dorothy "Dot" (John) Reed of Ann Arbor and Ruth Lamont of Baton Rouge, LA, cousin Mary (William) Purcell of Wallingford, PA, grandchildren Rachel, David, Seraphina, John IV, Calvin, Sara and Emily, nieces and nephews, and many friends. He was preceded in death by his parents, and by his eldest sister, Johnnie Robertson of Baton Rouge, LA.

A funeral service for Dr. Floyd will be held at 2:00 PM on Sunday, October 22, 2006 at the First United Methodist Church, 2727 Jackson Street, Alexandria, LA. Interment will follow at Greenwood Memorial Park, 2202 Military Highway, Pineville, LA. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to The Society for PSP (11350 McCormick Road, suite 906, Hunt Valley, MD 21031), the Endocrinology and Metabolism division of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Medical Center, the pipe-organ fund of the First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor (512 East Huron Street, Ann Arbor MI 48104) or the charity of the donor's choice. Funeral arrangements provided by Hixson Brothers of Alexandria.