Celebrating the Career of a GI Leader and Mentor

"A textbook is a tremendous amount of work," Dr. Powell said. "You do it because it’s a wonderful way to learn your specialty, and you’re contributing to the education of whole generations of people all over the world."

Dr. Powell says his ongoing clinical practice is another way he keeps grounded. He continues to see a handful of private patients and enjoys it. "I think it’s good for all physician scientists to still do some medicine. It’s the reason you’re doing all the research and administration," he said. "Some end up giving up the clinical world completely, but I think it’s always valuable to have a little reality in your face."

Dr. Shabot praised Dr. Powell as a "superb and incisive" clinician, despite seeing a very limited number of patients these days. He also praised Dr. Powell’s abilities as an administrator. "The word ‘administrator’ has a cold sound to it," Dr. Shabot said. "But Dr. Powell has been passionately committed to the institution."

Dr. Powell was born in Alabama in 1938. He earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Alabama, Birmingham, and completed his residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and at Yale–New Haven Community Hospital, later receiving an National Institutes of Health fellowship in physiology at Yale. Prior to landing at UTMB in 1991, he served as professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for 20 years.

One of the first things Dr. Powell helped do upon his arrival at UTMB was to encourage the creation of an alumni society for those who had trained in internal medicine as residents or fellows, or who had served on the faculty.

"This is one of the oldest medical schools west of the Mississippi," he said. "It’s been here since 1891. There’s this really rich history, and people like history and heritage and to know what they belong to. We decided that, with more than 100 years of medical school and thousands of people coming through it, we’re going to make people welcome and make a family out of it."

Now, 21 years later, "we have a well-established alumni society with a mailing list of 1,500 individuals," said Dr. Shabot, who is vice chair for alumni affairs and development for the department. "Dr. Powell believes in the importance of the history of the department and the institution."

Dr. Powell is married to Frances Rourke Powell, a journalist and former actress. He has three children from a previous marriage, four stepchildren, and 10 grandchildren. They will gather along with his ever-growing intellectual family to honor him in Galveston at the Don Powell Decades conference.

"He’s a giant in gastroenterology," Dr. Shabot said of Dr. Powell, "but hopefully not one who can’t take a joke." The conference will begin with a roast.