Hillel J. Gitelman ’54

Hillel died Jan. 12, 2015, in Chapel Hill, N.C., from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

Born in Rochester, N.Y., he graduated from Monroe High School. At Princeton, he majored in chemistry, was a member of Elm Club and the pre-med society, and played IAA football.

After graduating from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, he subsequently trained in internal medicine at Duke University and had a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. He then pursued a fellowship in nephrology at the University of North Carolina and joined the faculty there, where he spent the next 30 years.

In 1966, he described an unusual presentation in two sisters who had a kidney disease related to significant loss of potassium and magnesium. His research discovered an unusual protein as the cause of this disorder. The protein was cloned by Hill and his colleagues the year that he retired, and was named after him as the Gitelman syndrome. His research interests were extensive in issues of kidney and bone disease, especially in relation to exposure to aluminum.

Hill is survived by his wife of 59 years, Honre’ (“Onnie”); sons Stephen ’80, Daniel, and Philip; and four grandchildren. His daughter, Amy, predeceased him.