John Phillip (“Jack”) McGovern, MD, former member (1970-74) and chair (1973-74) of the NLM Board of Regents, died May 31 of pneumonia in Galveston, Texas. He was 85.

His tenure on the Board saw the inauguration of MEDLINE, the beginning of a national toxicology online search service, a number of satellite-based communications experiments, and emergency outreach to flood-ravaged medical libraries in Pennsylvania in the aftermath of Hurricane Agnes.

An internationally renowned physician, philanthropist, humanitarian and scholar, McGovern made his name as a leader in treating allergies and asthma, founding the McGovern Allergy and Asthma Clinic, one of the first clinics of its kind in the nation, in Houston in 1956.