Dr John Joseph Doyle was a veterinary
surgeon and scientist who devoted his life to the reduction of poverty ,
malnutrition and degradation in developing countries. To this end, he
worked for 20 years in Africa. In 1975 he became one of the original
scientific staff members of the International Laboratory for Research on Animal
Diseases (ILRAD) in Nairobi. This led to his subsequent appointments as
ILRAD's first Director of Research in 1983 and its first Deputy Director General
in 1991. In the latter role he contributed substantially to the strategic
planning of the new International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), which was
established in 1994. Dr Doyle died of cancer in Glasgow on 29 June
1999, at the age of 55.
Included below are extracts from the
eulogy
at Dr Doyle's funeral and a message received from Jack's
friends at ILRI in Kenya.
Further information about Dr
Doyle:
Curriculum
Vitae Bibliography Special
Interests
Educational Activities
Invited Speaker Consultant/Advisor
Positions
Keynote Address delivered at the
Inter-disciplinary Dialogue on "Malthus & Mendel: Population, Science
and Sustainable Food Security", held in Madras on 28-31 January 1998.
The Gallery
has a collection of photographs that will be of particular interest to Jack's
old friends and colleagues.
Extracts from eulogy delivered by Professor
George Gettinby, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, University of
Strathclyde (6 July 1999)
Jack Doyle touched the lives of
many. There are many people in different corners of the world who knew
Jack, but like the tumbling dice Jack had many sides. Because of his
private life style, very few of us ever saw the full man.
Some will remember him for his work as a
colleague in the early years of life when he started his career as a veterinary
surgeon. Some will remember him in his role as an academic and researcher
when he worked at the University of Glasgow Veterinary School and thereafter as
a research scientist at the International Laboratory for Research in Animal
Diseases in Nairobi. His pioneering work on trypanosomiasis, a major
disease of humans and animals, was to earn him a reputation as an international
authority.
Jack was to realise at an early stage
that which is written in Proverbs 29 verse 18: "Where there is no vision
the people perish". Jack had great
vision and he cherished knowledge above all else. In his subsequent
appointments as ILRAD's first Director of Research and Deputy Director General
he sought knowledge from all parts of the world and he was to establish the
Institute with an unequalled reputation for scientific excellence.
This scientific wealth was henceforth
accumulated according to the law of compound interest. There are very few
countries today where the Jack Doyle School of scientific investigation in
veterinary science, immunology, nutrition, molecular biology and social
economics is not evident and where young appointees of Jack Doyle have not
become doyens of their discipline.
Jack was a scholar, a modern philosopher,
a man with a remarkable intellect. At the heart of this complex
personality was a person utterly devoted to helping his fellow man. Jack
later found challenges in his work with the World Bank and other development
agencies on biotechnology and research management and became affiliated with the
Graduate School of Environmental Studies at the University of Strathclyde.
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Extracts from a letter received
from friends at the International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya
(30 June 1999)
We would say that we shall miss him
except that we've already been missing him for these past five years since he
left ILRI. We miss his intelligence. We miss his heart. We
miss his honesty. We miss his dedication to science. Most of all we
miss his voice-those Glaswegian wake-up call growls thrown into scientific
discourses threatening to go into soft focus (How he loathed soft focus!)
Again and again these last five years
we've turned around to tell each other "that's what Jack would say" or
"do you remember what Jack thought about that?" or "I'll never
forget what Jack thought about that".
Jack was the kind of man who knew what he
thought. He helped us to know what we thought. So he left us more
perhaps than he or we realised. He left a standard, an alarmingly
idiosyncratic, single-minded template. A man devoted to a single idea -
that science could answer all human problems. And the courage to go after
that no matter what. We shall not forget him. Nor, now, ever give
him some of what he gave to us.
The
Doyle Foundation