Jan. 17--Dr. John Fennessy, an Irish-born radiologist, established a remarkable reach and reputation in a 45-year career at the University of Chicago, where he treated patients, taught and conducted research
Fennessy, 82, died Jan. 3 in RML Specialty Hospital in Hinsdale of complications following cardiac surgery in November, according to the University of Chicago. He had lived in Hyde Park since coming to Chicago from Ireland in 1959.
"He was venerated as a teacher and a clinician above all," said Dr. Heber MacMahon, who like Fennessy came to the U.S. from Ireland, "although he was quite internationally known in his specialty for his research and his writing."
MacMahon, whom Fennessy hired in 1975 as an assistant professor of radiology, said Fennessy developed and extended some techniques that hadn't been used before in the U. S., particularly for obtaining material from the lungs for diagnosis.
"He also did some cutting-edge work correlating radiology and pathology in inflammatory bowel disease," MacMahon said.
Fennessy was born in Clonmel, Ireland. He completed his medical degree at University College, Dublin, then began his internship at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital in Dublin. He moved to the United States in 1959 to work as an intern at Mercy Hospital in Chicago.
He came to the University of Chicago as a resident in 1960 and was elected chief resident in his final year, followed by two years on staff as an instructor. In 1965, he joined the faculty as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1968 and professor in 1974. That same year, he was named chairman of radiology, a position he held for 10 years.
In 1982, Fennessy led the team that designed the department's clinical facility in the university's Bernard Mitchell Hospital, which opened in 1983. He retired in 2005.
Fennessy attracted people to his classes and to his specialty, according to Dr. Steven Montner, now associate professor of radiology, who met Fennessy as a medical student in the early 1980s. He was selected nearly 30 times as a favorite faculty member by the graduating medical students, the U. of C. said.
"Students flocked to him," Montner said. "He directed me into radiology, more because of him than the specialty itself."
Fennessy also put patients at ease. "Besides being a definitive expert in chest diseases, when he was with a patient, he was extremely kind, extremely reassuring," Montner said.
Fennessy's concern for patients showed in his work to help expand a technique developed in Japan, according to MacMahon, who pointed to a time when many pulmonologists used rigid bronchoscopes for lung examinations.
"Dr. Fennessy used flexible fiber-optic scopes and also developed catheter techniques in such a way that he could access very small areas of the lung quite accurately, and by using small brushes and forceps could obtain tissue for diagnosis," MacMahon said.
Fennessy's innovative adaptation, described in a paper he wrote in 1966 and known as the bronchial brush, enabled physicians to acquire better samples from hard-to-reach areas of the lungs, without the need for an incision. His technique was widely disseminated in the United States and abroad, according to the U. of C.
Fennessy was elected first vice president of the Radiological Society of North America in 1987. He spoke as a visiting professor at universities across the United States as well as in Canada, England, Ireland, Qatar and Taiwan. He also was a founding member of the Society of Thoracic Radiology and a member of the Fleischner Society, an international, multidisciplinary medical society for thoracic radiology.
Dr. J. P. Kress, a pulmonologist, met Fennessy when Kress was a medical student at the university in the early 1990s. "He was the go-to guy as far as chest radiology goes," said Kress, now professor of medicine and director of the medical intensive care unit at the University of Chicago Medicine.
Fennessy read widely, particularly Irish literature, history and culture. He maintained a small house in Ireland and visited every summer. His children gave him fly-fishing lessons, and he practiced the craft around the Midwest and in Ireland.
"He was a Renaissance man, a poet, a raconteur and an authority on arcane subjects," said his daughter Deirdre. "He loved being in Ireland, particularly by the sea. That was where he was most at peace."
Other survivors include his wife of 55 years, Ann; daughter Rona; sons Conor, Sean, Niall and Ruairi; a sister, Nora Stapleton; a brother, Cianan; and four grandchildren.
Another daughter, Emer, died in 2015.
Services were held.
His ashes are to be interred in Ireland.
Megan is a freelance reporter.
