Dr. William W. Fleming

            Dr. William W. Fleming, Jr. age 83, of Tionesta, PA, passed away on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, at his home in Tionesta.  Dr. Fleming was born in Washington, D.C. January 30, 1932, to William W. Fleming Sr. and Esme Reeder Fleming. In early 1946, he moved with his mother to Montana where he graduated from Great Falls High School in 1950. With a scholarship, he attended Harvard University, majoring in biology and graduating cum laude in 1954.  He met his wife to be, Dolores Atchison, in high school and they were married September 1, 1952. Supported by University scholarships, teaching assistantships, and Dolores’s continued employment, he completed his PhD in biology in 1957 from Princeton University. His major interest was microvascular physiology. Dr. Fleming then returned to Boston, this time to Harvard Medical School under a National Institute of Health (NIH) postdoctoral fellowship, studying autonomic and cardiovascular pharmacology.   When he left in 1960, he was about to become an Instructor in the School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology.

            In 1960 he joined the Department of Pharmacology at the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown where he was an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of that department’s new NIH Graduate Training Grant. In 1966 Dr. Fleming was appointed Professor and Chair of the department, a position he held until his retirement in 1999. From 1986 he also held the endowed Mylan Chair of Pharmacology. He received numerous awards, including being chosen by several classes of medical students as the outstanding teacher in basic sciences. Dr. Fleming was internationally recognized for his research as well as a mentor of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows from around the world. In 2001, WVU awarded him the Vandalia Award for outstanding service to the state.

            As part of three research sabbaticals, Fleming served as Visiting Professor at the University of Melbourne and the University of Adelaide, Australia (1969), St. George’s Medical School, University of London, England (1978) and Flinders University of Adelaide (1987).  After his retirement, he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Nevada in Reno. His professional activities included three four year terms on NIH study sections, reviewing grant applications, seven years as a consultant to the Meade Johnson pharmaceutical company and appointments to the editorial boards of scientific journals. He served as president of three professional organizations, the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Association for Medical School Pharmacology and the International Union of Pharmacology, a position that enabled him to travel widely. He was the recipient of numerous professional research and career awards and published over 130 full-length scientific publications. At the time of his death, Dr. Fleming was not only an Emeritus Professor of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at West Virginia University but also an Adjunct Professor of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

            In 2003, he and his wife Dolores moved to Tionesta, where one of their daughters resides, and he resumed his life-long interest in building ship models to the scale of 1:350.  He had built over 50 ships, most World War II models.  He was also known for his extensive model train collection.

            His wife of 62 years, Dolores, passed away with him on April 29, 2015.  They are survived by their two daughters, Jennifer Hitchcock and her husband Mark of Tionesta, Pa., Lisa Foster and her husband Preston of San Antonio, Texas, a son, Dr. David Fleming and his wife Kathleen of Edwardsburg, Michigan, five grandchildren, Matthew Hitchcock and his girlfriend Angela Vitale of Conway, South Carolina, Christopher Hitchcock and his wife Amy of Pittsburgh, PA, Kara Foster and Paige Foster, both of San Antonio, Texas, and Lincoln Fleming of Michigan.  A great-grandson, Owen Hitchcock.

      Family will receive friends on Sunday, May 3, 2015 from Noon to 3 PM at the Norman J. Wimer Funeral Home of Tionesta, PA.  Funeral services will be private.  In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Friends of Tionesta Public Library PO Box 127 Tionesta, PA 16353. 

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