The Journal of Endocrinology would like to take this opportunity to celebrate the life of Keith Langston Parker. The Journal does not normally carry obituaries; however, Keith's tragic and untimely death just prior to Christmas at the age of 54 years after suffering a heart attack during his daily jog and whilst in the midst of many ongoing seminal contributions to our specialty, merits special tribute.
Keith was the J D and Maggie E Wilson Distinguished Professor in Biomedical Research and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas and served as Professor of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology. He was born in St Louis, Missouri, and attended Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, for his undergraduate studies. Following a family tradition for biomedical research, he obtained MD and PhD degrees at Washington University in St Louis. He trained in internal medicine at the UT Southwestern Medical Center before postgraduate studies in molecular genetics at Harvard University. Keith joined the faculty of the Department of Medicine at Duke University in 1986, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. In 1997, he returned to UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.
Keith was an internationally recognized leader in the field of endocrinology and metabolism. He made major breakthroughs in our understanding of the mechanisms controlling gonadal and adrenal development as well as how the genes encoding steroidogenic enzymes are regulated. Along with the Morohashi group in Japan, Keith recognized that a common DNA sequence was critically important in regulating these genes and he went onto discover the nuclear receptor, steroidogenic factor 1 (NR5A1) that was to form his major research focus for the next decade. Keith was amongst the earliest researchers to apply gene knockout technology through the generation of mice lacking NR5A1. The mice displayed a remarkable phenotype beyond the regulation of steroidogenesis. They exhibited multiple endocrine abnormalities, including adrenaland gonadal agenesis, impaired expression of pituitary gonadotropins, and structural abnormalities of the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus amongst other features, such as male-to-female sex reversal. Keith's research group went on to define the role of NR5A1 in many of these sites, thus demonstrating that this transcription factor is fundamental to many aspects of endocrinology. Alongside this work, Keith continued his research on molecular steroidogenesis with studies of the steroidogenic acute regulatory (STAR) protein. This latter work also led to major publications, with his work being amongst the most highly cited in Molecular Endocrinology. Keith was also an educator, both on a daily basis to endocrinology and reproductive endocrinology trainees at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and as an editor and contributor to major international textbooks – notably in recent years, Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. Keith had served terms on the editorial board of many journals including Journal of Clinical Investigation, Endocrinology, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Molecular Endocrinology, and was a current editorial board member of Biology of Reproduction and Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology amongst others. He served as Basic Science Chair for the Endocrine Society Annual Meeting in 2006 and, notwithstanding the adversity of colon cancer treatment, was Program Chair for ENDO2008.
Reflecting these major achievements, Keith was the recipient of many honors. He was elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 1991 and the Association of American Physicians in 1997. He received the Ernst Oppenheimer award from the Endocrine Society in 1996, the Society for the Study of Reproduction Research Award in 2004, and the Transatlantic Medal from the Society for Endocrinology in 2004 when he delivered a characteristically outstanding lecture. In 2006, Keith received the University Seal from the University of Bologna.
Most importantly, underlying all these aspects, Keith was an understated, humble man of high integrity, much loved by colleagues and collaborators locally, nationally, and internationally. ‘Leadership’ and ‘mentorship’ are commonplace terms in 21st century universities; Keith's quiet delivery of both has placed ‘Parker Lab’ endocrinologists in many parts of the world who will be forever grateful. Whilst his many friends and peers come to terms with this premature loss, each can reflect on happy anecdotes, social interaction and the realization that our own lives were enhanced through Keith's friendship. Duke University basketball lost its number one fan, our research community has lost a great deal more. However, at heart, Keith was a family man and above all else our thoughts go out to his wife, Linda, his five children, Kevin, Andrea, Emily, Caroline, and Christopher, his parents and his four brothers and sisters.
