John Fordtran, M.D., a former Professor and Chief of Gastroenterology who trained and mentored generations of physicians at UT Southwestern, died at his home north of Dallas on Feb. 23. He was 93.

“As an investigator, his contributions to gastroenterology and GI physiology are extensive,” said Ezra Burstein, M.D., Ph.D., Chief of Digestive and Liver Diseases and Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology. “He stands as one of the most preeminent academic gastroenterologists of his generation.”

In 1973, Dr. Fordtran co-authored Gastrointestinal Disease, which became an authoritative source for training gastroenterology fellows for decades. It was considered by many clinicians as the gold standard of gastroenterology textbooks.

Dr. Fordtran joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1962. A year later, he became the institution’s first Chief of Gastroenterology, a position he held until 1979.

His pioneering research on fluid and ion transport across the intestinal epithelium and the role of glucose in this process significantly advanced the understanding of water and salt absorption in the human intestine. This work led to a new physiological classification of diarrheal diseases and informed their treatment.

Dr. Fordtran was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 1968 and served as its President eight years later. The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) recognized his contributions with multiple awards, including the Distinguished Achievement Award (1971), Fiterman Award for Clinical Research (1990), Distinguished Educator Award (1991), Julius Friedenwald Award (1993), and the Janssen Award for Lifetime Achievement in Gastroenterology (1999). He also received the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine (1984) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London (1997).

Born in 1931 in Stockdale, Texas, John Satterfield Fordtran was the third child of William M. and Josephine (Bell) Fordtran, owners of a small dairy farm. After graduating from the Texas Military Institute in 1949, he spent three years studying premed at UT Austin, then enrolled at Tulane Medical School in New Orleans. While still a medical student, he married Jewel Evans in 1953. They had four children.

Dr. Fordtran received his medical degree in 1956 and completed an internal medicine residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital. He then spent two years in the U.S. Public Health Service, conducting hematology research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and serving as Chief of Medicine on the Navajo Reservation at Fort Defiance Hospital in Arizona.

In a 2018 blog post, Dr. Fordtran cited the influences of the late UTSW faculty members Donald Seldin, M.D., Daniel Foster, M.D., and Jean Wilson, M.D., for inspiring him to conduct meaningful research.

“The most important thing that made me successful was that I’ve always had a research laboratory,” Dr. Fordtran said. “So whenever I got an idea, I could do an experiment to find out if it was a good idea, and then try to make the most of it.”

Dr. Fordtran is survived by his wife of 72 years, Jewel; their children, Bess (Brian) Stone, William (Mickey) Fordtran, Joey (Mark) Wolf, and Amy (Rick) Garrison; five grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.