McGovern Lectureship Namesake Dies

June 5, 2007

Celebrated physician, educator, author, medical historian, philosopher, philanthropist and humanitarian John P. McGovern, M.D., for whom the College of Communication’s John P. McGovern Lectureship is named, died May 31 in Houston. He was 85.

Established in 1983 by a gift from the John P. McGovern Foundation, the McGovern Lectureship enabled the college to invite a leading figure in communication to deliver a lecture related to health policy or the practice of health communication.

Among the many speakers who lectured on campus as a result of the endowed lectureship are Neal Baer, M.D., executive producer of NBC’s “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; Vicki S. Freimuth, professor and former associate director of communication for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Gina Kolata, science and medicine reporter for the New York Times and author of Ultimate Fitness.

McGovern’s interest in health communication led him to establish the John P. McGovern Regents Professorship in Health and Medical Science Communication. Professor Patricia Stout, current holder of the professorship, credits him with helping to support numerous research projects in the College with undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.

Some of those research projects include: examining media content for prime-time television program depictions of mental illness, as well as alcohol related messages and examining the role of the Internet in ameliorating mental illness stigma; interdisciplinary teaching efforts on The University of Texas at Austin campus and with the University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health; and development of an initiative in the College of Communication to foster public understanding of the communication of science and health (PUSH – Public Understanding of Science and Health).

According to the American Medical Association, McGovern was “one of the giants in American medicine.” His international reputation in various fields was reflected in honorary degrees from 30 colleges and universities.

Link to Houston Chronicle obituary.