Dr Vincent P. Dole

Developed Methadone

Maintenance Program

Dr Vincent P. Dole, 93, died August 1 at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan. Dr Dole was a resident of Newtown and New York City at the time of his death. He was professor emeritus of The Rockefeller University, was a leading authority on the biology and pharmacology of addictive diseases and in the study of lipid chemistry and obesity. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences in 1972, and in 1988 he received the Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Research for the development of methadone maintenance for the management of heroin addiction.

Born in Chicago, Ill., on May 8, 1913, Dr Dole received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Stanford University in 1934, and a medical degree from Harvard University in 1939. Following an internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, he joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, later the Rockefeller University, in 1941, as a research assistant participating in the renal studies in the laboratory of Donald D. Van Slyke.

During World War II, he served as a lieutenant commander with the Naval Medical Research Unit at the Rockefeller Hospital. He was appointed an associate member of the Rockefeller Institute in 1947 and a member in 1951. He assumed the title of professor in 1955, when the Institute became a graduate university. He has served on the boards of numerous scholarly publications and was an editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine from 1953 to 1964.

Dr Dole developed the methadone maintenance program in the 1960s in collaboration with his then-wife, the late Marie Nyswander. Following pilot studies at Rockefeller Hospital, methadone maintenance was adopted in hundreds of programs worldwide.

In his Rockefeller laboratory, Dr Dole and his co-workers conducted a wide range of clinical and animal studies aimed at a deeper understanding of the biochemical and functional effects of addictive substances. Most recently, he broadened his field of investigation to include studies of alcoholisms, often a complicating factor in narcotics addiction and which, of itself, represents an addiction afflicting a far greater segment of the population than narcotics.

In addition to the Lasker Award, Dr Dole received many honors for his work on methadone and for his earlier lipid studies.

He received the first annual award of the National Drug Abuse Conference, in 1976 and, in 1982, the Nathan B. Eddy Memorial Award from the Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence. He was one of four recipients of the 1988 Mayor’s Awards of Honor for Science and Technology, in New York.

Dr Dole received several honorary doctorates, including an honorary doctorate from the medical faculty of Uppsala University, Sweden, in 1988; an honorary doctorate in medicine from the University of Cagliari in 1989; and an honorary doctor of science from the Rockefeller University in 1992.

He was a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served on the board of trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was a diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member of the Society of Experimental Biology, the Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the American Physiological Society.

In addition to his wife, Margaret M. Cool-Dole, he is survived by his children, Vincent of Washington, D.C., Bruce of St Louis, Mo., and Susan of Arlington, Va., his stepchildren, John Cool of Pelham, N.Y., Ellen Cool Kwait of Marblehead, Mass., Mary Lee Cool Gupta of New York City, and Adrienne Cool of Oakland, Calif., 13 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

A memorial service will be held at Rockefeller University later this year. Family services will be private.

Donations may be sent to the Vincent P. Dole Institute, Department of Public Health at Weill Medical College, 445 East 68th Street, #1A, New York NY 10021.

The Newtown Bee        August 4, 2006