Ian Maclean Smith

SMITH, MACLEAN, KESSEN, MONTGOMERY, ELLIOT, ZACHARY, REILAND, CHAMBERLAIN, MITCHELL

Posted By: Tara (email)
Date: 9/6/2012 at 16:23:56

Ian Maclean Smith, age 90, died August 27th at Oaknoll Retirement Residence. Memorial services will be held at the Oaknoll Retirement Residence on Sunday, September 2nd from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. The body has been cremated. Memorials may be made to the Infectious Disease Division, Department of Internal Medicine Memorial Fund, University of Iowa College of Medicine Iowa City, Iowa, 52242.

Ian was born May 21, 1922 in Glasgow, Scotland to Robert Kessen Smith (manufacturing draper) and Anna Maclean Smith (teacher). He graduated from the nearly 900 year old High School of Glasgow (1938) with prizes in Science, and from the University of Glasgow MB, ChB, (1944) and MD (in Research) (1958). He married Dr. Jeanne Montgomery Smith of Toronto (later Professor of Allergy and Immunology) in 1948. He served fellowships in Pathology and Medicine at the Royal Post Graduate Medical School, London, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and the Rockefeller (Institute) University, New York. He was Clinical Tutor in Pathology at the University of Sheffield, England. Dr. Smith was the first United Kingdom Fulbright Scholar to the United States. He was Visiting Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Virginia with Professor John in 1975.

Dr. Smith was a Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa for nearly 40 years and Professor Emeritus since 1991. He was Professor and Chair, Department of Internal Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN 1976 to 1978. He was a cofounder of this new Medical School, which was then funded with $47 million dollars from the Federal Government. A specialist in Infectious Diseases and Geriatrics, he was one of 50 founding members of the Infectious Disease Society of America, which now has over 8,000 members. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Glasgow), and Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (London). He was a volunteer at the Free Medical Clinic. Dr. Smith established the Infectious Disease Division and later the Geriatric Division in the Department of Medicine at the University of Iowa. He researched the biochemistry of staphylococcal septic shock and his pioneering research with Dr. Marybeth Godfrey-Dewey led to the establishment of the Division of Hospital Epidemiology.

During World War II Ian served in the Home Guard, as an officer in the Naval Cadets and as a bagpipe player in The University of Glasgow’s Officers’ Training Corps. Dr. Smith was a Surgeon Lieutenant in the British Royal Navy in the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets during and after World War II. His ship HMS Amethyst captured the first German U-Boat to surrender, was in the Invasion Fleet for Japan, was part of the reoccupation force to enter Hong Kong and was present at the signing of UK-Japan peace at Rabaul, New Guinea.

Dr. Smith was Chair of the Iowa City Men’s’ Club, the Unitarian Men’s Club, the Iowa City Hospice Board and Chair of the Council for International Visitors to Iowa City (CIVIC). He served on the Unitarian Universalist Board of Directors in Iowa City and in the Tri Cities, Tennessee. After retiring, Dr. Smith has been a medical journalist and starting in 1992 and continuing to 2007. he wrote a weekly column for the Iowa City Press Citizen and later for Virtual Hospital. He was the author or co-author of five books and over 190 scientific articles. He trained 19 specialists in Infectious Diseases (and 20 high school students) and five specialists in Geriatrics and 12 other scientists. He received a prize for teaching from the Medical Students.

Dr. Smith organized and chaired 37 postgraduate Internal Medicine continuing education courses for approximately 2,000 physicians and other caregivers lasting one to three days.

His wife Jeanne and Ian were sponsors or hosts to immigrants and visitors from the Philippines, Chile, Laos, Eritrea, Britain, South Africa, Switzerland, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Russian Georgia and New Zealand and to a variety of visitors to the Theater Department of the University. Survivors include his wife, Dr. Jeanne Montgomery Smith and 5 children. Dr Robert Maclean Smith of Sioux Falls, SD, Dr. William M. Smith and his wife Julie Elliot, of Iowa City, Dr. Douglas Maclean Smith of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, Dr. Janellen Smith and her husband Dr. Christopher Zachary of UC Irvine, CA, and Scott Montgomery Smith Iowa City, a former actor who is now a writer and composer. There are 9 grandchildren and two great grandchildren. The grandchildren are Catriona, Carolyn, Ian and Nathan Reiland-Smith, and Cameron, Tague, Alexa and George Zachary, George’s wife Juli and Laura Zachary Chamberlain and her husband Philip, and their two children Bella and Holly. His sister Anne Kessen Mitchell and her husband Professor Stuart Mitchell, of Delft, the Netherlands and St. Andrews, Scotland, died earlier.