Leading HIV researcher, and rock star’s father, championed dignity for all patients
In early days of AIDS crisis, Northwestern University professor advocated for compassionate care
A professor and leading AIDS researcher, Dr. John Philip Phair was known and admired in medical circles and also at concerts featuring his daughter Liz Phair.
His patients “would just come up to me,” said Liz Phair, the singer-songwriter from Chicago who now lives in Los Angeles. “They just had this look in their eye like he made a difference and that he had gone above and beyond what he had to do.”
His former colleagues say empathetic care was a priority for Dr. Phair, who was chief of infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine from the late 1970s to 2000.
He died Feb. 19 of heart failure. He was 89. “He was someone who staunchly believed in every human being’s dignity,” his daughter said. “And he was a champion of that. He was a champion in a lot of ways.”
A longtime Winnetka resident, Dr. Phair was living at the Westminster Place retirement community in Evanston at the time of his death.
He embraced the opportunity to investigate HIV and AIDS in the early days of the crisis. From 1987 to 2012, he was chairman of the executive committee of the groundbreaking Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, a National Institutes of Health-supported investigation of the history of HIV.
In 1987, Dr. Phair helped establish the Chicago AIDS Clinical Trials Unit, part of the AIDS Clinical Trial Group of medical centers studying the treatment of HIV and its complications.
Dr. Phair chaired the AIDS Research and Advisory Committee of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 2000 to 2002 and the author of more than 365 research papers and 45 chapters in medical texts, according to his family.
“John was really a person whose shoulders we stood on,” said Dr. Frank Palella, an infectious diseases professor at Northwestern who said Dr. Phair was a mentor. “AIDS research is incredibly indebted to the systems that he set up and the examples that he set.
On top of all that, he was simply a wonderful person, generous in time and in advice and in giving credit to others.”
Born in Paris on July 17, 1934, Dr. Phair attended Yale University and got his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1960. He returned to Yale to train in internal medicine and infectious diseases.
He also gained experience overseas during the 1960s in Hiroshima, Japan, where he studied the impact of radiation on atomic bomb survivors for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.
At the onset of the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Phair stood up for patients amid discrimination, according to Dr. Robert Murphy, an infectious diseases professor at Northwestern.
“Some hospitals wouldn’t [treat] patients with HIV,” said Murphy, who holds an endowed professorship named for Dr. Phair. “John was kind of like the beacon light. He was so well-respected by basically everybody on the staff. He said, ‘Listen, we’ll follow the science, and we’ll learn as we go. But I can tell you this: It is not spread by respiratory or casual transmission, and we have to treat these people with dignity.’ He was such a force.”
Dr. Phair also advocated for children with AIDS, according to Palella.
“He would recount stories of how he would go before school boards and large groups, including people responsible for setting policy regarding kids with AIDS, and reassure them that this was not something that could be easily transmitted and should never be used as justification for isolating or marginalizing these kids,” Palella said. “He was well-known for being the voice of reason.”
Dr. Phair was never boastful about his influence, according to colleagues.
“He was funny,” Murphy said. “He liked to dance. He was a great swimmer. He was a true leader and a very humble guy.”
In addition to his daughter, Dr. Phair is survived by his wife Nancy, son Phillip and three grandchildren.
A memorial service is being planned.