William T. Beaver ’54

Bill died Nov. 12, 2020, of complications from COVID-19.

He prepared at the Albany (N.Y.) Academy. At Princeton he majored in chemistry, joined Terrace Club, and was a member of the Chemistry Club, the Pre-Med Society, and Whig- Clio. After earning a medical degree at Cornell Medical College and an internship in surgery, he became a postdoctoral fellow, then an instructor in Cornell’s department of pharmacology.  In 1961 he married Nancy B. Powell.

In 1963 he began his distinguished career in research on the clinical pharmacology of pain medications. Bill helped establish a scientific basis for the use of painkilling drugs ranging from aspirin to oxycodone, and chaired a federal panel on the medical use of marijuana. His neighbors in Waterford, Va., jokingly called him “the pain man.”

As a teacher and clinical pharmacologist at Georgetown University, Bill set out principles that evolved into today’s standards for how proposed new drugs for human use are to be tested. Students elected him to the medical school’s Golden Orchard, an honor reserved for faculty who earned three or more Golden Apple annual teaching awards. 

A practiced woodworker, Bill built or restored much of the furniture in his home, constructed several outbuildings on his 48 acres, and planted more than 2,000 evergreens, hardwoods, and fruit trees.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy, a retired mental-health therapist; three children; and six grandchildren