Dr. Jay M. McDonald
1943-2019
Dr. Jay M. McDonald passed away on June 5, 2019, at the age of 75, from complications
following cardiac surgery.
Jay received his B.S. from Tufts University in 1965, M.D. from Wayne State University in 1969,
did a Medicine internship at Oregon and then an AP/CP residency at Wayne State and was board
certified in both AP and CP.In 1974 he came to Washington University as a clinical chemistry
fellow with research with Leonard Jarett, M.D., the first Chief of the Laboratory Medicine
division.He joined the faculty in 1976 as Co-Director of Clinical Chemistry with me.From
1981-1990, he was the second chief of the laboratory medicine division then a division of both
Pathology and Medicine.From 1990 until2008, he was Chair of Pathology at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham
During his time there he brought the department to sixth in NIH funding. He founded in 1996
(and led until 2010) one of only five centers for metabolic bone disease.Jay published over 200
peer-reviewed papers and was on three editorial boards and editor-in-chief of the American
Journal of Pathology 2003-2008.He received many awards and honors including the 2010
Lifetime Achievement Award in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine from the
American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC), a Distinguished Service Award from the
American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), the Gold Cane Award for lifetime
achievement of the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP),a fellow of the Royal
College of Pathologist and an Evans Award from the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS).He was also president of ACLPS and got the Paul E.
Strandjord Young Investigator Program off the ground in the 1980’s.
Along with his wife Sarah, he created the Jay M. McDonald Professorship in Bone Pathobiology
and the Jay M. McDonald Endowed Chair in Laboratory Medicine.
On a personal level, Jay was always upbeat, straightforward, and a great mentor
A dear friend to many of us.He will be missed.
Brainstorming the future of clinical chemistry and its future role in health care