Don Mason (1923-2004)

Don Mason started his pharmacological career at the Research Laboratories of the May & Baker Company in Dagenham. There, with Ron Wien, he discovered the ganglion-blocking drug pentolinium (M&B 2050; Mason & Wien, 1955: Br. J. Pharmacol., 10, 124-132). Though rapidly supplanted in essential hypertension by alternative pharmacological approaches, it retained a place for the treatment of hypertensive crises and pre/post-operative hypotension for several years, and is still used experimentally (as witness the 500+ current references in PubMed).

In 1956 he was recruited by Peter Quilliam to the then-new Pharmacology Department at Bart’s Hospital Medical College. There, he became the rock upon which much of the teaching and research work of the Department was built, and played the key role in founding the Intercalated B.Sc. in Pharmacology. He was a master of the live demonstration, and established a wonderful rapport with both the undergraduate and postgraduate students.

After completing further research work on sympathetic ganglia, he switched fields first to coronary blood-flow, devising with colleague John Gasking new electronic probes for blood flow measurement which he applied to various vascular beds; and subsequently to measurements of in vivo catecholamine and peptide release. During this period, he established fruitful collaborations with several clinical colleagues, including Douglas Chamberlain, Mike Besser and Lesley Rees.

At the end of the ‘80s he was appointed “shadow” Dean of the new Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences at Queen Mary and Westfield College. It was typical of Don that he accepted this nominally part-time post, without elevation of academic rank, in order to serve his colleagues impartially and give the new Faculty a fighting chance of success. He continued to exercise his diplomacy and wisdom, superintending not only the merger of reluctant bedfellows, but also the development of a new curriculum and the commissioning of an excellent new building on a tight budget. Without him and all his hard work, chaos would have reigned.

Don’s essential qualities could be summed up in three words – professionalism, kindness and wisdom: professionalism as a scientist (rigorously seeking the truth, not advertisement); kindness and helpfulness to others, particularly his junior colleagues; and always wisdom in the advice that he provided.

David Tomlinson
David Brown