Dr. John Walsh; Gastric Health, Ulcer Expert
Dr. John Walsh, internationally known for his pioneering studies of how gastric acid functions and of treatments for ulcers and other diseases it can cause, has died at age 61.
Walsh, research chief of the UCLA Digestive Diseases Division and the Straus Professor of Medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine, died Wednesday of complications after a heart attack, UCLA spokesmen said.
The highly respected doctor served as president of the American Gastroenterological Assn. in 1994-95. Praised by a colleague for his “keen mind and a voracious desire to know how things work,” Walsh earned the Abbott distinguished research award for excellence in gastrointestinal physiology from the Gastrointestinal Section of the American Physiological Society.
Walsh came to Los Angeles in 1970 to work with Dr. Morton I. Grossman, who founded the Center for Ulcer Research and Education at the Veterans Administration Westside Hospital in 1974. Grossman died in 1981, leaving Walsh and others to carry on his work. At the time of his death, Walsh was director of CURE, which has adopted the broader title Digestive Diseases Research Center.
Contrary to popular opinion, he said in a 1985 interview with The Times, ulcers are not caused by stress. He said they could be diagnosed only through use of an endoscope, a fiber-optic tube used to explore the stomach and intestines.
Walsh also debunked a number of popular myths about ulcers, which affect 4 million Americans a year, in that interview. His research showed that neither a bland diet, milk, nor decaffeinated coffee and tea improved an ulcer.
Born in Jackson, Miss., Walsh earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He completed his internship and residency at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and served as an officer at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Before moving to Los Angeles, he was a research associate at the Veterans Administration Hospital in New York City.
Twice divorced, Walsh is survived by a daughter, Courtney S.W. Phleger of San Francisco; a son, John Harley Walsh Jr. of Brooklyn Heights, N.Y.; a sister, Cecile W. Wardlaw of Jackson, Miss.; and three grandchildren.
The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to UC Regents/Walsh Memorial Fund and sent to Dr. Leonard Rome at the UCLA School of Medicine, 10833 Le Conte Ave., Suite 12-138, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1722.
