School of Pharmacy Alum Paul A. Pumpian Dies

Annual lecture created in 2004 to honor the 1950 graduate

By Becky Ceraul
April 10, 2008

Paul A. Pumpian, a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy and the School of Law and founder of an annual lectureship at the School, passed away on April 6, 2008.

Pumpian’s career as a pharmacist and patent attorney spanned private industry and government. He was extraordinarily active in professional organizations both in pharmacy and law. He served as chairman of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Section of the Teachers of Pharmacy Administration, the American Pharmaceutical Association’s Section on Education and Legislation, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Committee on Legislation, and the Association of Food and Drug Officials of the U.S. Committee on Drugs, Devices, and Cosmetics. He held a number of positions as well in the District of Columbia and Federal Bar Associations.

Pumpian earned a BS in general biological sciences from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1948, and a BSP in 1950 from the School of Pharmacy. While working towards his pharmacy degree, he went on to receive a JD from the School of Law in 1953. He began his career as an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy in 1953 and is credited with creating the first pharmacy administration department at the School.

Each year, the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy hosts the Paul A. Pumpian Lecture. The lectureship was founded in 2004 and aims to bring current discussion and debate on legislative and legal issues to the School’s faculty, staff, professional and graduate students.

This year’s Paul A. Pumpian Lecture was delivered on March 11 by John F. Fader II, who earned a degree in pharmacy in 1963 but also earned a law degree and went on to become a lawyer and a judge. He now teaches at both the School of Pharmacy and the School of Law at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. His lecture, “Night and Day-The Pharmacist’s Increasing Legal Responsibility for Cognitive Errors,” emphasized the current cultural climate: more people are taking more medications than ever; pharmacists face a staffing shortage in their industry; and the media highlights those times when pharmacists do make errors.
Services for Pumpian were held on April 8.