Professor Emeritus of Pharmacology Raymond W. Ruddon Jr. (Ph.D. 1964, M.D. 1967) died April 26, 2019, at the age of 82.
Ruddon joined the U-M faculty as an instructor of pharmacology in 1964 and rose through the ranks to professor in 1974. In 1976, he resigned to join the National Cancer Institute, but he returned to U-M in 1981 as professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology. From 1986-1990, he was associate director of basic science research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center (now the Rogel Cancer Center). From 1988-1990, he also held the title of Maurice H. Seevers Professor of Pharmacology. In 1990, Ruddon joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska and in 1997 became the corporate director for science and technology at Johnson & Johnson. He returned to Michigan again in 2004 as professor of pharmacology and senior associate dean for research and graduate studies at the Medical School.
He became a professor emeritus of pharmacology in 2006 but maintained active emeritus status for many years after his retirement. In 2016, U-M Regents established the Raymond and Lynne Ruddon Collegiate Professorship in Cancer Biology and Pharmacology in the Medical School to honor his career and far-reaching contributions to the field, as well as his generous donations to U-M and the Medical School.
Ruddon's research focused on the biosynthesis, assembly, folding, and secretion of glycoprotein hormones. His laboratory was the first to demonstrate the folding pathway of a human protein inside an intact cell. He authored more than 100 scientific papers and five books, including the widely used oncology text Cancer Biology. He was editor of the chemotherapy chapters of the ninth edition of the pharmacology textbook Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics.
A version of this obituary first appeared on MLive.com. Information from the U-M Faculty Memoir Project was also used.