The Robert Dunning Dripps Professorship of Anesthesia
The Professorship was established in 1965 through the bequest of Grace Slack McNeil and Robert Lincoln McNeil, a 1904 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and President of McNeil Laboratories, to honor the achievements in the field of anesthesiology of Robert Dunning Dripps, MD (1911–1973), an esteemed alumnus of the Perelman School of Medicine Class of 1938.
Dr. Dripps joined the faculty of the Perelman School of Medicine in 1941. The Department of Anesthesia, originally a Division of the Department of Surgery, became an autonomous University Department in 1965. As Chairman of Anesthesiology until 1972, Dr. Dripps built an internationally acclaimed academic department, rooted in his firm belief that anesthesiology essentially was composed of clinical pharmacology and physiology and that training in those basic disciplines would produce superior anesthesiologists, teachers, and investigators. In 1972, he was appointed Vice President for Health Affairs by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Dripps co-authored a major textbook, Introduction to Anesthesia: The Principles of Safe Practice. He was named a Fellow of the Faculties of Anaesthetists of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of both Ireland (1970) and England (1972) and was a founding member of the Association of University Anesthesiologists (1953), serving as its President in 1957.
Current Chairholder
The Robert Dunning Dripps Professorship of Anesthesia is currently open.
Previous Chairholders
- Harry Wollman, MD 1972–1986
- David E. Longnecker, MD 1988–2004
- Lee A. Fleisher, MD 2005-2021
- Deborah J. Culley, MD 2021-2025