Obituary for John Gordon Topliss, Ph.D.
Topliss, John Gordon Ph.D., Ann Arbor Michigan, 90, devoted husband, father, and grandfather, died at his home on March 19, 2021.
John was born in a small coal mining village in England, the only child of Ivy (Cantrill) and Leonard Topliss.
At age 11, John was awarded a competitive academic scholarship, the only one of 35 classmates to get one. It enabled him to gain admission to a selective regional grammar school, and access to a university track curriculum. He received a BSc degree with honors in chemistry, first class, in 1951 from the University of Nottingham, and a Ph.D. degree in 1954 in organic chemistry from the same institution. He did his postdoctoral research at The Royal Technical College in Stockholm, Sweden and at Columbia University in New York.
John joined Schering Corporation (which became Schering-Plough and is now part of Merck) as a synthetic medicinal chemist in 1957. He met and married fellow chemist Geraldine (d-2011) in 1958, and they had two sons, Eric (b-1962), and Martin (b-1964).
At Schering, John was part of scientific and management teams that successfully brought a number of new medicines to the world market. He was one of the first to study the relationship between a medicine’s chemical structure and its efficacy, which led him to develop strategies for designing more effective medicines. His method became known as The Topliss Tree, (1972), and eventually as the Manual Hansch Approach (1977). The Topliss Tree was widely adopted by medicinal chemists and is a topic discussed in most books on medicinal chemistry. This paradigm helped to make drug design of new medicines considerably more efficient, particularly in the early stages of development. The methodology has been used by chemists world-wide and is still in use today.
These contributions, among others, earned him election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986. John also won the American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry award in 1998 and the election to that organization’s Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 1979, John took a new position as Director of Chemistry, later promoted to Vice President of Chemistry in 1983, at Warner Lambert/Parke Davis in Ann Arbor. Over a period of 12 years, John led a dramatic expansion of chemistry operations. Under his leadership, Warner Lambert/Parke Davis became the first pharmaceutical company to develop and utilize Diversomer Technology, a unique approach in the new field of combinatorial chemistry which permits scientists to explore a large number of diverse drug candidates in a rapid fashion. John was part of the discovery and commercialization of twenty FDA approved drugs including the highly successful drugs, quinapril (Accupril), and atorvastatin (Lipitor) which were invented and synthesized by chemists in his department. John always maintained a passion for the science of medicinal chemistry as he rose through the ranks of management, and was an inventor on 33 patents.
After “retirement” from industry, John became Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy at The University of Michigan in 1992, continuing his passionate pursuit of science. There, he carried out research on the prediction of how the structure of a medicine is related to its ability to be absorbed into the human bloodstream, tissues, and organs, resulting in the first formulation of a quantitative model of how chemical structure modulates the absorption of medicine in people. The research was published in 2000. He maintained a vigorous consulting schedule with a variety of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies well into his 70’s.
John was an intensely curious person. He was thoughtful, understanding, kind, patient, and generous. In his personal life, he was deeply devoted to his family and loved to share stories of his childhood in England and his experiences while traveling.
Some of his sons' favorite memories with their father are going to the US Open tennis tournament with a large cooler when it was held at Forest Hills, playing against him in tennis and being flummoxed by his unorthodox side spin backhand, vacationing at Little Lake Sunapee, NH, traveling through the western United States, and going on trips to England and Europe. On one such trip, John took his sons to a cricket match for the first time. Inebriated fans bellowed obscenities while he calmly tried to explain the nuances of the game to his young sons.
John doted on his three grandchildren and delighted in their company. He would play chess with his grandson for hours while talking strategy. He also liked to talk about history and put together science experiments to work on. John was full of intellectual enthusiasm and enjoyed sparking that in others.
He loved chamber music, fine dining, travel, and was a tennis, wine, and soccer aficionado. He was a donor to many philanthropic causes and lived his life with energy, humility, good cheer and grace.
He is survived by his children, Eric Topliss and Martin (Sarah) Topliss; and his three grandchildren, John Topliss, Xander Topliss and Maeve Topliss.
There will be a private memorial for immediate family members, followed by a Celebration of Life event at a later date.
John was born in a small coal mining village in England, the only child of Ivy (Cantrill) and Leonard Topliss.
At age 11, John was awarded a competitive academic scholarship, the only one of 35 classmates to get one. It enabled him to gain admission to a selective regional grammar school, and access to a university track curriculum. He received a BSc degree with honors in chemistry, first class, in 1951 from the University of Nottingham, and a Ph.D. degree in 1954 in organic chemistry from the same institution. He did his postdoctoral research at The Royal Technical College in Stockholm, Sweden and at Columbia University in New York.
John joined Schering Corporation (which became Schering-Plough and is now part of Merck) as a synthetic medicinal chemist in 1957. He met and married fellow chemist Geraldine (d-2011) in 1958, and they had two sons, Eric (b-1962), and Martin (b-1964).
At Schering, John was part of scientific and management teams that successfully brought a number of new medicines to the world market. He was one of the first to study the relationship between a medicine’s chemical structure and its efficacy, which led him to develop strategies for designing more effective medicines. His method became known as The Topliss Tree, (1972), and eventually as the Manual Hansch Approach (1977). The Topliss Tree was widely adopted by medicinal chemists and is a topic discussed in most books on medicinal chemistry. This paradigm helped to make drug design of new medicines considerably more efficient, particularly in the early stages of development. The methodology has been used by chemists world-wide and is still in use today.
These contributions, among others, earned him election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986. John also won the American Chemical Society Division of Medicinal Chemistry award in 1998 and the election to that organization’s Hall of Fame in 2007.
In 1979, John took a new position as Director of Chemistry, later promoted to Vice President of Chemistry in 1983, at Warner Lambert/Parke Davis in Ann Arbor. Over a period of 12 years, John led a dramatic expansion of chemistry operations. Under his leadership, Warner Lambert/Parke Davis became the first pharmaceutical company to develop and utilize Diversomer Technology, a unique approach in the new field of combinatorial chemistry which permits scientists to explore a large number of diverse drug candidates in a rapid fashion. John was part of the discovery and commercialization of twenty FDA approved drugs including the highly successful drugs, quinapril (Accupril), and atorvastatin (Lipitor) which were invented and synthesized by chemists in his department. John always maintained a passion for the science of medicinal chemistry as he rose through the ranks of management, and was an inventor on 33 patents.
After “retirement” from industry, John became Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy at The University of Michigan in 1992, continuing his passionate pursuit of science. There, he carried out research on the prediction of how the structure of a medicine is related to its ability to be absorbed into the human bloodstream, tissues, and organs, resulting in the first formulation of a quantitative model of how chemical structure modulates the absorption of medicine in people. The research was published in 2000. He maintained a vigorous consulting schedule with a variety of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies well into his 70’s.
John was an intensely curious person. He was thoughtful, understanding, kind, patient, and generous. In his personal life, he was deeply devoted to his family and loved to share stories of his childhood in England and his experiences while traveling.
Some of his sons' favorite memories with their father are going to the US Open tennis tournament with a large cooler when it was held at Forest Hills, playing against him in tennis and being flummoxed by his unorthodox side spin backhand, vacationing at Little Lake Sunapee, NH, traveling through the western United States, and going on trips to England and Europe. On one such trip, John took his sons to a cricket match for the first time. Inebriated fans bellowed obscenities while he calmly tried to explain the nuances of the game to his young sons.
John doted on his three grandchildren and delighted in their company. He would play chess with his grandson for hours while talking strategy. He also liked to talk about history and put together science experiments to work on. John was full of intellectual enthusiasm and enjoyed sparking that in others.
He loved chamber music, fine dining, travel, and was a tennis, wine, and soccer aficionado. He was a donor to many philanthropic causes and lived his life with energy, humility, good cheer and grace.
He is survived by his children, Eric Topliss and Martin (Sarah) Topliss; and his three grandchildren, John Topliss, Xander Topliss and Maeve Topliss.
There will be a private memorial for immediate family members, followed by a Celebration of Life event at a later date.