University Times

A memorial service for Alvin P. Shapiro, professor emeritus at the School of Medicine and a pioneer in the study of high blood pressure, will be held Dec. 28 at 2 p.m. in Heinz Memorial Chapel.

Shapiro, 77, died of kidney failure at his home in Highland Park on Nov. 21, 1998.

He led the study section of Pitt's Hypertension Detection and Followup Program, which during the 1970s established that blood pressure treatments substantially reduced the chances of stroke and heart failure. It was the first large study in which men and women, and both blacks and whites, received a simple outpatient therapy for high blood pressure. Shapiro came to Pitt's medical school in 1956. He directed the psychosomatic program and was chief of the clinical pharmacology/hypertension section from 1960 to 1971. Shapiro later served as associate dean for academic affairs (1971-75), vice chairperson of the Department of Medicine (1975-79), chief of Presbyterian University Hospital (1977-79), and chairperson of the credentials committee (1980-86). From 1986 until he was named an emeritus professor in 1993, Shapiro directed Shadyside Hospital's internal medicine training program. He received the Albert Lasker Special Public Health Award in 1980 and, in 1988, a Laureate Award for Teaching Excellence from the American College of Physicians, among other awards. He wrote more than 200 articles and books.

Born in Nashville, Tenn., and raised on Staten Island, N.Y., Shapiro earned his undergraduate degree from Cornell University in 1941 and his medical degree from Brooklyn's Long Island College of Medicine in 1944. He did internal medicine specialty training at New York's Goldwater Memorial Hospital and later was a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Shapiro is survived by his wife, Ruth; daughter Debra, of Madison, Wisc., and son David, a doctoral student at the University of Washington in Seattle; and three grandchildren.

The family suggests donations in Shapiro's name to Shadyside Hospital Foundation, 5230 Centre Ave., Pittsburgh 15232.