William Peter McCann ’47

He was one of the classmates arriving in July 1943 after graduating from Exeter. From 1943 to 1945 Pete marched through Princeton in the Navy V-12 premed program. In November 1945 he was admitted to Cornell University Medical College, where he earned his degree in 1949.

Pete’s medical career was interrupted by two years Navy service during the Korean War. He then received a fellowship in pharmacology at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., where he married Mary Gay Crow in 1954. Assignments in Baltimore and Denver led to his appointment as professor of pharmacology and internal medicine at the University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham, where he spent the rest of his brilliant career.  

Pete’s professional honors included Alpha Omega Alpha. His teaching and research skills were outstanding, and his research publications are among the most quoted in the field.

Pete and his family enjoyed hiking and camping all over the United States and Canada until the last few years. To Gay; his children, Carolyn McCann Weaver and Peter C. McCann; his sister, Elizabeth M. Adams; and three granddaughters, we extend deepest sympathy.