Dr. E. Eric Muirhead, an internationally known pathologist who helped organize the nation's blood bank system and later directed Elvis Presley's autopsy, died Saturday at his East Memphis home. He was 77.
Muirhead also was a pioneering researcher into high blood pressure, whose discoveries led to new insights in one of the world's leading causes of heart disease.
"He had a passion for scientific investigation," said his son E. Eric Muirhead Jr. of Houston. "Outside his family, his greatest happiness was in the laboratory."
Muirhead came to Memphis in 1965 to direct the department of pathology and the blood bank at Baptist Memorial Hospital. He also began teaching and conducting research at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, where he was pathology and medicine professor emeritus at the time of his death.
In 1977, he directed Presley's autopsy after the singer's sudden death at age 42. Muirhead said he always insisted the rock and roll star had died of "polypharmacy", or drug interaction, and that he was shocked when Shelby County medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco listed the cause of death as "heart failure".
"We were appalled that he made that announcement", Muirhead said in 1991. "There were eight doctors there who disagreed with him".
He said he didn't speak out publicly at the time because he was "muzzled" by Baptist attorneys. Later, he said, he decided to avoid the worldwide publicity the Presley case would generate.
Muirhead was born in 1916 in Recife, Brazil, the sixth of eight children born to Baptist missionary parents. He moved to Waco, Texas, as a teenager, and earned his medical degree at Baylor University College of Medicine in 1939.
During World War II, Muirhead -- a Navy lieutenant -- served as a physician in the Pacific. When the carnage of that war made the need for a coordinated blood drive obvious, Muirhead and other doctors founded the American Association of Blood Banks. He also was a founder of the Mid-South Regional Blood Center.
For five decades, Muirhead studied renal hypertension, or high blood pressure. He published more than 250 articles on the subject, and patented several methods of treatment.
Left untreated, high blood pressure damages blood vessels throughout the body, leading to chronic kidney and heart disease.
Muirhead pioneered the concept that the kidney combats high blood pressure naturally through an endocrine mechanism. At the time of his death, he was attempting to isolate this hormone, which he called Medullipin.
"He was driven to pursue a scientific career literally up until the day of his death," said another son, Michael Muirhead of Little Rock.
"So much of what he did was basic science, which is not immediately useful but yet has done a great deal in extending our knowledge, and one day may be of great practical use," said Dr. Jim Pitcock, director of hospital laboratories for Baptist, who called Muirhead his mentor.
Muirhead earned many honors and held many top positions in the medical field. The Chair of Excellence in Pathology at UT-Memphis is named for him.
During the past four decades, he served on the boards of the American Association of Blood Banks, the American Heart Association and St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls, among other institutions. He served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, and received major awards from the International Society of Hypertension, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Church of the Holy Communion, 4645 Walnut Grove, where he was a member, with burial in Memorial Park. Memorial Park Funeral Home has charge.
He also leaves his wife of 51 years, Mary Louise Muirhead; three daughters, Marilyn Muirhead of Memphis, Jan Muirhead of Nashville and Sara Shanley of Dallas; three sisters, Mrs. William Estes of Flagler Beach, Fla., and Mrs. Warren Adams and Mrs. Richard Brooks, both of Waco; and four grandsons.
Published in The Commercial Appeal on 11-21-1993.
Birthdate source is SSDI.
Muirhead also was a pioneering researcher into high blood pressure, whose discoveries led to new insights in one of the world's leading causes of heart disease.
"He had a passion for scientific investigation," said his son E. Eric Muirhead Jr. of Houston. "Outside his family, his greatest happiness was in the laboratory."
Muirhead came to Memphis in 1965 to direct the department of pathology and the blood bank at Baptist Memorial Hospital. He also began teaching and conducting research at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, where he was pathology and medicine professor emeritus at the time of his death.
In 1977, he directed Presley's autopsy after the singer's sudden death at age 42. Muirhead said he always insisted the rock and roll star had died of "polypharmacy", or drug interaction, and that he was shocked when Shelby County medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco listed the cause of death as "heart failure".
"We were appalled that he made that announcement", Muirhead said in 1991. "There were eight doctors there who disagreed with him".
He said he didn't speak out publicly at the time because he was "muzzled" by Baptist attorneys. Later, he said, he decided to avoid the worldwide publicity the Presley case would generate.
Muirhead was born in 1916 in Recife, Brazil, the sixth of eight children born to Baptist missionary parents. He moved to Waco, Texas, as a teenager, and earned his medical degree at Baylor University College of Medicine in 1939.
During World War II, Muirhead -- a Navy lieutenant -- served as a physician in the Pacific. When the carnage of that war made the need for a coordinated blood drive obvious, Muirhead and other doctors founded the American Association of Blood Banks. He also was a founder of the Mid-South Regional Blood Center.
For five decades, Muirhead studied renal hypertension, or high blood pressure. He published more than 250 articles on the subject, and patented several methods of treatment.
Left untreated, high blood pressure damages blood vessels throughout the body, leading to chronic kidney and heart disease.
Muirhead pioneered the concept that the kidney combats high blood pressure naturally through an endocrine mechanism. At the time of his death, he was attempting to isolate this hormone, which he called Medullipin.
"He was driven to pursue a scientific career literally up until the day of his death," said another son, Michael Muirhead of Little Rock.
"So much of what he did was basic science, which is not immediately useful but yet has done a great deal in extending our knowledge, and one day may be of great practical use," said Dr. Jim Pitcock, director of hospital laboratories for Baptist, who called Muirhead his mentor.
Muirhead earned many honors and held many top positions in the medical field. The Chair of Excellence in Pathology at UT-Memphis is named for him.
During the past four decades, he served on the boards of the American Association of Blood Banks, the American Heart Association and St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls, among other institutions. He served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, and received major awards from the International Society of Hypertension, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Church of the Holy Communion, 4645 Walnut Grove, where he was a member, with burial in Memorial Park. Memorial Park Funeral Home has charge.
He also leaves his wife of 51 years, Mary Louise Muirhead; three daughters, Marilyn Muirhead of Memphis, Jan Muirhead of Nashville and Sara Shanley of Dallas; three sisters, Mrs. William Estes of Flagler Beach, Fla., and Mrs. Warren Adams and Mrs. Richard Brooks, both of Waco; and four grandsons.
Published in The Commercial Appeal on 11-21-1993.
Birthdate source is SSDI.
Dr. E. Eric Muirhead, an internationally known pathologist who helped organize the nation's blood bank system and later directed Elvis Presley's autopsy, died Saturday at his East Memphis home. He was 77.
Muirhead also was a pioneering researcher into high blood pressure, whose discoveries led to new insights in one of the world's leading causes of heart disease.
"He had a passion for scientific investigation," said his son E. Eric Muirhead Jr. of Houston. "Outside his family, his greatest happiness was in the laboratory."
Muirhead came to Memphis in 1965 to direct the department of pathology and the blood bank at Baptist Memorial Hospital. He also began teaching and conducting research at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, where he was pathology and medicine professor emeritus at the time of his death.
In 1977, he directed Presley's autopsy after the singer's sudden death at age 42. Muirhead said he always insisted the rock and roll star had died of "polypharmacy", or drug interaction, and that he was shocked when Shelby County medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco listed the cause of death as "heart failure".
"We were appalled that he made that announcement", Muirhead said in 1991. "There were eight doctors there who disagreed with him".
He said he didn't speak out publicly at the time because he was "muzzled" by Baptist attorneys. Later, he said, he decided to avoid the worldwide publicity the Presley case would generate.
Muirhead was born in 1916 in Recife, Brazil, the sixth of eight children born to Baptist missionary parents. He moved to Waco, Texas, as a teenager, and earned his medical degree at Baylor University College of Medicine in 1939.
During World War II, Muirhead -- a Navy lieutenant -- served as a physician in the Pacific. When the carnage of that war made the need for a coordinated blood drive obvious, Muirhead and other doctors founded the American Association of Blood Banks. He also was a founder of the Mid-South Regional Blood Center.
For five decades, Muirhead studied renal hypertension, or high blood pressure. He published more than 250 articles on the subject, and patented several methods of treatment.
Left untreated, high blood pressure damages blood vessels throughout the body, leading to chronic kidney and heart disease.
Muirhead pioneered the concept that the kidney combats high blood pressure naturally through an endocrine mechanism. At the time of his death, he was attempting to isolate this hormone, which he called Medullipin.
"He was driven to pursue a scientific career literally up until the day of his death," said another son, Michael Muirhead of Little Rock.
"So much of what he did was basic science, which is not immediately useful but yet has done a great deal in extending our knowledge, and one day may be of great practical use," said Dr. Jim Pitcock, director of hospital laboratories for Baptist, who called Muirhead his mentor.
Muirhead earned many honors and held many top positions in the medical field. The Chair of Excellence in Pathology at UT-Memphis is named for him.
During the past four decades, he served on the boards of the American Association of Blood Banks, the American Heart Association and St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls, among other institutions. He served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, and received major awards from the International Society of Hypertension, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Church of the Holy Communion, 4645 Walnut Grove, where he was a member, with burial in Memorial Park. Memorial Park Funeral Home has charge.
He also leaves his wife of 51 years, Mary Louise Muirhead; three daughters, Marilyn Muirhead of Memphis, Jan Muirhead of Nashville and Sara Shanley of Dallas; three sisters, Mrs. William Estes of Flagler Beach, Fla., and Mrs. Warren Adams and Mrs. Richard Brooks, both of Waco; and four grandsons.
Published in The Commercial Appeal on 11-21-1993.
Birthdate source is SSDI.
Muirhead also was a pioneering researcher into high blood pressure, whose discoveries led to new insights in one of the world's leading causes of heart disease.
"He had a passion for scientific investigation," said his son E. Eric Muirhead Jr. of Houston. "Outside his family, his greatest happiness was in the laboratory."
Muirhead came to Memphis in 1965 to direct the department of pathology and the blood bank at Baptist Memorial Hospital. He also began teaching and conducting research at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, where he was pathology and medicine professor emeritus at the time of his death.
In 1977, he directed Presley's autopsy after the singer's sudden death at age 42. Muirhead said he always insisted the rock and roll star had died of "polypharmacy", or drug interaction, and that he was shocked when Shelby County medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco listed the cause of death as "heart failure".
"We were appalled that he made that announcement", Muirhead said in 1991. "There were eight doctors there who disagreed with him".
He said he didn't speak out publicly at the time because he was "muzzled" by Baptist attorneys. Later, he said, he decided to avoid the worldwide publicity the Presley case would generate.
Muirhead was born in 1916 in Recife, Brazil, the sixth of eight children born to Baptist missionary parents. He moved to Waco, Texas, as a teenager, and earned his medical degree at Baylor University College of Medicine in 1939.
During World War II, Muirhead -- a Navy lieutenant -- served as a physician in the Pacific. When the carnage of that war made the need for a coordinated blood drive obvious, Muirhead and other doctors founded the American Association of Blood Banks. He also was a founder of the Mid-South Regional Blood Center.
For five decades, Muirhead studied renal hypertension, or high blood pressure. He published more than 250 articles on the subject, and patented several methods of treatment.
Left untreated, high blood pressure damages blood vessels throughout the body, leading to chronic kidney and heart disease.
Muirhead pioneered the concept that the kidney combats high blood pressure naturally through an endocrine mechanism. At the time of his death, he was attempting to isolate this hormone, which he called Medullipin.
"He was driven to pursue a scientific career literally up until the day of his death," said another son, Michael Muirhead of Little Rock.
"So much of what he did was basic science, which is not immediately useful but yet has done a great deal in extending our knowledge, and one day may be of great practical use," said Dr. Jim Pitcock, director of hospital laboratories for Baptist, who called Muirhead his mentor.
Muirhead earned many honors and held many top positions in the medical field. The Chair of Excellence in Pathology at UT-Memphis is named for him.
During the past four decades, he served on the boards of the American Association of Blood Banks, the American Heart Association and St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls, among other institutions. He served on the editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology, and received major awards from the International Society of Hypertension, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Church of the Holy Communion, 4645 Walnut Grove, where he was a member, with burial in Memorial Park. Memorial Park Funeral Home has charge.
He also leaves his wife of 51 years, Mary Louise Muirhead; three daughters, Marilyn Muirhead of Memphis, Jan Muirhead of Nashville and Sara Shanley of Dallas; three sisters, Mrs. William Estes of Flagler Beach, Fla., and Mrs. Warren Adams and Mrs. Richard Brooks, both of Waco; and four grandsons.
Published in The Commercial Appeal on 11-21-1993.
Birthdate source is SSDI.
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