I am writing today with the sad news that Dr. Frank S. French passed away on February 7th, 2025. Dr. French served as a faculty member and scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from the 1960s through the 2000s. He was one the founders of our division and one of the giants of the pediatric endocrinology field.
Frank S. French was born in Missouri and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas followed by a medical degree from the University of Rochester. After one year of residency in Cleveland, he fulfilled his military obligations at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro. It was there, that Dr. French met Jud Van Wyk at a talk for the local medical society.
That relationship grew and when Dr. French finished his military service, he completed two chief resident years at UNC while working in the Van Wyk Laboratory. He then joined the faculty and was eventually part of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, where he worked his whole career, becoming a full professor in 1976 and the Director of the Laboratory of Reproductive Biology (LRB) in 1982.
Dr. French thrived in the laboratory, but it was one of his patients who truly stimulated his imagination and began his more than half-century research career. French saw a young lady who had a normal physical exam with the exception that masses could be felt in her groins. Dr. French found that the masses were normal testes. He reasoned that this girl’s body must not respond normally to testosterone, the major testicular hormone. His studies were able to demonstrate the validity of his speculation, and these observations began a career investigating how testosterone acts at the cellular and molecular level. Dr. French organized a highly successful research unit, called the Laboratories for Reproductive Biology (LRB). Together with Dr. Elizabeth Wilson and others, the LRB has made many inroads into our understanding of male reproduction. Among these accomplishments were the molecular identification of the androgen receptor gene and documentation of the gene abnormalities that result in androgen resistance, the disorder that stimulated this line of research. Dr. French’s work has been recognized by a NIH MERIT Award (1995 to 2002) and by the Distinguished Andrologist Award from the American Society of Andrology. The LRB remains one the outstanding labs investigating androgen action and male reproduction.
During his career, over fifty fellows and postdoctoral research fellows were shaped by his mentorship and teaching.
He was an exceptional scientist, a great mentor and a gentle human being. We all personally loved, respected and admired him.
Ali S. Calikoglu, MD
Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill