Eleanor Hill Venning, Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Medicine of

McGill University, died in Montreal, Quebec on June 21, 1988. She was an

internationally renowned leader in the field of steroid biochemistry and

endocrinology, a Professor in the Department of Experimental Medicine at

McGill University, and the Director of the Endocrine Laboratories at the

Royal Victoria Hospital. Her career was devoted to research and the

training of graduate students. Her translational research led to major

changes in the clinical management of endocrine disease.

Dr. Venning was born in Montreal, Quebec on March 17, 1900 and obtained

a B.A. degree with honors in biochemistry in 1920, an M.Sc. in

biochemistry in 1921, and a Ph.D. in experimental medicine in 1933, all

from McGill University. In the period between her M.Sc. and Ph.D., she

was a close colleague of Professor J.S.L. Browne and the two—one a

clinical and early physician scientist, the other a basic scientist—were

instrumental in creating the new scholarly discipline of endocrinology

during their careers.

Eleanor Venning’s early work in endocrinology combined her skills in

biochemistry with her skills in biological assays for a variety of hormones,

particularly those related to the menstrual cycle and pregnancy. It was

under her direction that the endocrine laboratories were established at the

Royal Victoria Hospital and McGill University, and under her direction, it

became an internationally recognized center for training in basic

endocrinology, particularly in steroid hormone endocrinology. Together

with her long list of graduate students of international origins, she made

pioneering research contributions in the area of the isolation of

pregnanediol from human pregnancy urine; the isolation of pregnanediol

glucuronide and its characterization; the synthesis and metabolism of

crystalline progesterone; the isolation of androsterone sulfate; the

development of bio-assays for the adrenal corticoids (now recognized as

being the glucocorticoids); and the development of bio-assays for a sodium

retaining hormone, later proven to be aldosterone. She made pioneering

studies on the endocrinology of pregnancy and in the study of adrenal

cortical function related to toxemia of pregnancy. Eleanor Venning was the

author of over 200 papers and a number of texts, all recording in great detail

her most unusual contributions to endocrinology.

Eleanor Venning was a distinguished member of many scientific societies,

served as President of the Canadian Physiological Society, and was a

long-term member of the Council of the U.S. Endocrine Society and its Vice

President. She was also a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Many of these positions were pioneering since she was either the first or one

of a few women scientists to fill this role. Dr. Venning was elected Fellow of

the Royal Society of Canada in 1955.

In addition to Eleanor Venning’s scholarly achievements, she was a

committed outdoor person and an avid bird watcher. She had acquired a

delightful home in the Laurentians to which she periodically sought retreat

with a variety of close friends. It became a meeting place for an increasingly

expanding group of young people committed to the emerging field of

endocrine research.