[2] John P. Peters was known not only for his pioneering work in human metabolism, but also for his passionate efforts to bring National Health Insurance to the United States at the close of the second World War.
was quoted as saying, “It doesn’t matter much to an old fellow like myself, but it is the principle of the thing that counts.” [7] In 2007, an undergraduate history major at Yale, Jonathan Bressler, was able to find out the name of his accuser, Louis Budenz, a former active member of the Communist Party USA and managing editor of the Daily Worker, who had recanted his beliefs and become well paid as an informant.
His oldest brother, Thomas McClure Peters had died in 1885, at less than 2 years of age and his older sister, Brooke, had been born on August 1, 1885.
He competed as a diver while in college,[11] graduating in 1908 and then returned to St. John Manlius School for one year to teach English and Latin.
While in medical school, he met his future wife, Charlotte Morse Hodge, but they were not allowed to marry until he had completed the first 2 years of his post graduate training.
[1][9] He received the appointment of associate professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University in July, 1920, but was granted a leave of absence for the first year while the medical school was being re-organized.
built up the clinical laboratory and was at the forefront of clinicians who “understood the basic knowledge of physics and chemistry that underlay their usefulness in the treatment of human disease”.
[1] He published over 200 articles spanning a wide range of “contributions to the understanding of diseases of metabolism; electrolyte and acid base equilibrium; nephritis; water exchange; the interrelation of proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids in metabolism; the role of the thyroid in health and disease; medical education; and the role of the government in medical care”.
“His contributions to the pathologic physiology of the circulatory, respiratory, excretory and endocrine systems, of the metabolism of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, electrolytes and water have been integrated into the science of medicine.” [12] Each year, the American Society of Nephrology gives out “The John P. Peters Award which recognizes individuals who have made substantial research contributions to the discipline of nephrology and have sustained achievements in one or more domains of academic medicine including clinical care, education and leadership.”[13] John P. Peters, M.D.
died of the complications of a heart attack he had suffered several months earlier on December 29, 1955, at the age of 68, less than a year after his Supreme Court case was adjudicated.