The John H. Yardley Fellowship in Gastrointestinal Pathology
Support a Fellow in GI Pathology
The Yardley Fellowship was established in 1999 by the Department of Pathology, colleagues, family, and friends to honor John “Jack” H. Yardley, M.D., an outstanding physician-scientist, medical educator, mentor, and leader in the Department and at John Hopkins. For more than 50 years, Dr. Yardley devoted his energies to research, patient care, and teaching. He was one of the founding fathers of the field of gastrointestinal pathology, making groundbreaking observations on Whipple's disease of the gastrointestinal tract and helping define the current classification system for neoplastic dysplasia in the colon and esophagus.
Dr. Yardley was the son of a Republic Steel Company executive and a homemaker. He was born in Columbia, South Carolina. Due to the nature of his father’s work, he was raised in Greenville, North Carolina; Birmingham, Alabama; Houston, Texas; and Cleveland, Ohio. During World War II, Dr. Yardley served in the United States Navy as an electrician's mate. Returning to civilian life in 1946, he entered Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1949. He then came to Baltimore, where he earned his medical degree in 1953 from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Yardley completed his internship in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, but returned to Baltimore in 1954 to complete his residency training in pathology at Johns Hopkins. He served as chief resident of pathology, graduating in 1959 and joining the faculty in the Department of Pathology. In the 1960s, Dr. Yardley established the Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology Fellowship Program to promote both the research and clinical activities of talented pathologists who sought advanced training in gastrointestinal disease.
Dr. Yardley was a prolific researcher and author of more than 120 articles and case studies, as well as 20 book chapters. In 1977, he and co-authors Basil C. Morson, CBE, and Murray R. Abell, M.D., Ph.D. published "The Gastrointestinal Tract: International Academy of Pathology Monographs No. 18.” In 1972, Dr. Yardley attained the rank of Professor and served as the School of Medicine’s associate dean for academic affairs from 1977 until 1984. From 1988 to 1992, he served as the sixth Baxley Professor and Director of Pathology, together with John K. Boitnott, M.D. as Pathologist-in-Chief, during a critical transitional period for the Department. Dr. Yardley retired in 2006 and was named a University Distinguished Services Professor of Pathology in 2007. Dr. Yardley was an extraordinary educator and a leader in medical education, both on the national and international levels. He prized the Department of Pathology, the University, and those around him. Although Dr. Yardley passed away in 2011 at age 85, his legacy continues to thrive through each Yardley Fellow we train.
If you would like to honor John Yardley's memory, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution in his honor to the John H. Yardley Fellowship in Gastrointestinal Pathology through the Department of Pathology's secure online giving form by clicking the button below.
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