Blood-alcohol testing pioneer has died

Kurt Dubowski, a pioneer in the science of breath and blood-alcohol testing and a longtime faculty member of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, died Monday. He was 96.

Dubowski, of Moore, became the first state director and first chairman of the Oklahoma Board of Tests for Alcohol and Drug Influence after the Legislature created the state agency in 1967.

He served in those capacities for many years and was instrumental in developing the rules, procedures and standards that the agency uses to regulate the collection and analysis of blood, breath, saliva and urine evidence so that the results will be considered valid and admissible as evidence in court.

“You can’t measure the value of his work to public safety and impaired driving prevention and breath alcohol testing,” said Kevin Behrens, the current director of the state Board of Tests.

Dubowski also founded the toxicology laboratory of the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office and the forensic laboratory system of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, both of which are now independent units.

He served as president of the American Association for Clinical Chemistry in 1985.

According to information on the American Association for Clinical Chemistry website, methods for blood- and tissue-alcohol analysis developed by Dubowski “have been used by laboratories of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Texas Rangers, the Surete Nationale of France and by numerous clinical and public health laboratories.”

Dubowski joined the medical faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 1961 — a position he held for decades — and served as a George Lynn Cross Distinguished Professor of Medicine, professor of pathology and director of toxicology laboratories and forensic science laboratories.

“Dr. Dubowski was a longtime faculty member of the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Department of Pathology,” said Dr. Jason R. Sanders, senior vice president and provost of OU Health Sciences Center. “He was very active in the American Association for Clinical Chemistry, having served in many roles of the association’s leadership. He was a friend and close colleague of many at the Health Sciences Center (and he) will be missed.”