Stuart Phillips · @mackinprof
21st Jan 2022 from TwitLonger
From my good friend Dr. Arny Ferrando on the passing of Kevin Tipton
A tribute to my friend and colleague, Dr. Kevin Tipton.
Immediate Friendship
I have enjoyed probably the longest-standing relationship with Tipper in our scientific field. For this, I am honored and humbled. It started back in graduate school at Florida State University. I was required to be at the College Dean’s annual faculty meeting that kicked off each year as the previous year’s College Doctoral Scholarship winner. The ladies were in nice dresses, the men in shirt and tie – me included. It was the type of meeting you would expect, and I was unable to pick out Tipper in the crowd. When it came time to announce Tipper as the year’s winner, he appears from outside the room – dressed in an open rugby shirt, rugby pants (too short), and a substantial ponytail. Suffice to say that he distinguished himself from the very beginning. After the meeting, I went up and introduced myself to him, and asked him “how did you get away with not wearing a tie? I had to..” Tipper gave me that patented Tipper look on his face that is a cross between incredulous and “what a stupid question” and replied, “I just didn’t.” A couple of smart-ass comments followed from each of us, and an instant friendship was formed. That’s the first thing I came to admire about Tipper – what you see is what you get. Tipper in a tie was like lipstick on a pig – entertaining at first, but just doesn’t fit after a while. He was who he was, and made no excuses, carried no pretenses, and tried to be nothing else. In fact, one of the attributes I loved most about him was his brutal honesty. If you were thinned skin, don’t ask for an opinion you don’t want. After many years in the military, I thoroughly felt at home with his refreshing perspective and honesty.
At FSU, Tipper was a willing and capable prankster. At one point, he poked fun at me for eating the equivalent of Spam in all those military rations over the years. I fired back that it was indeed an anabolic food. This conversation was effectively the birth of The Journal of Spam Research. This was back in the computer’s formative years, and our college had just installed a room of 286 computers (Windows had yet to be invented) and dot-matrix printers. Soon, “research” started to appear on the department’s bulletin boards denoting the relationship between Spam intake and lean body mass, Spam intake and performance, and you get the idea. We would delight in watching faculty and student reaction to reading these contrived abstracts and graphs. Of course, they were posted without author names, but it did not take the faculty long to figure out the culprits. Tipper and I had the same major professor (she retired shortly after – I think it was too much for her) who abruptly summoned us to a meeting in her office. It went exactly like this: “Please sit. Listen to me carefully…we are NO longer conducting Spam research in this department”. This was followed by direct eye contact with each of us to further emphasize her point. Our response, “Yes ma’am” and a prompt departure from her office.
There were literally weekly events that were several standard deviations from the norm, but it just shows you that Tipper was able to handle the academic rigors (quite easily) and still make time for enjoyment. In fact, I would go so far as to say that he prioritized enjoyment. We were TA’s back then and he delighted in giving some tidbit of erroneous, and often outlandish, information to his students, only to finally say, “Oh, by the way, just kidding about that..” which was met with resounding moans from the students. Tipper was ALWAYS up for a good time and was a great wingman to fun and outrageous endeavors. As I finished up ahead of him in my doctoral work, I had time to kill in Tallahassee. “Tipper, let’s run the streets tonight” would be my request. His response was always, “what time and where?”. The reason for telling you all this is that while he was a fun-loving friend, he never did so at the expense of his academic requirements and education. Graduating with pretty much a 4.0 average, he made it all look so very easy. He was one bright and capable dude.
Scientific Development
As our major professor took a job at Auburn University, Tipper still had a year plus to complete and went with her to AU. I went to NASA as a post-doctoral fellow working in Dr. Wolfe’s lab. I had begun my journey in the study of protein metabolism with Dr. Wolfe, which was of keen interest to Tipper. He approached me with the idea of doing his doctoral work with us at UTMB. I distinctly remember talking to Bob and giving him a glowing report of Tipper’s capabilities. Bob, having heard that schtick so many times before, kind of glazed over. Realizing I had to improve the sell, I finally said, “Oh yea, he’s also a 16-minute 5K guy”. That immediately perked up Bob, as he was a big-time runner at that time who was always looking for training partners. His response was “Yea, let’s get him down here and take a look”. So began a long relationship with the Wolfe laboratory and UTMB. Tipper did his pre-doctoral research at UTMB, upon which Bob offered him a post-doc, then faculty position. I believe that all told, he was with us for 6-7 years before leaving for the UK. He was an awesome addition to our team.
In this time, I saw first-hand how Tipper developed as an outstanding and discerning scientist. One of the many things I really appreciated about him is that he never “married” an idea, choosing instead to see where the data brought him. This alone, in my opinion, set him apart from many in the field. Further, he was always one to question the extent of one’s conclusions if he thought they were a reach for the given data. He was very meticulous in his work and was willing to learn everything from the ground up. He was not afraid to get his hands dirty in the lab and was soon an expert in all aspects of tracer methodology and protein metabolism. He was an outstanding team player and loyal to the end. He was very generous with both his time and money. His rapid development also enabled him to become a great mentor for several post-doctoral fellows, as he was willing to discuss, demonstrate, and oversee even the smallest of associated skills and details. As it was, one of his earliest interactions was with Dr. Stuart Phillips, as he worked hand-in-hand with Stu to complete what became a seminal project outlining the time-course response of muscle protein synthesis and breakdown after resistance exercise.
The Gang
I have always said that Tipper is a pack animal. At UTMB and under Bob’s directorship, running was a lab religion. Every lunch centred on some type of running workout. The group grew larger and expanded from Tipper and Bob to include Stu, DJ Doyle, Asle Aarsland, Elisabet Borsheim, Kathy Wiecart, Andy Coggan, and anyone else who could hang with the brutal workouts. They would routinely go to races together or partner for relays. It was a great lab dynamic and one where Tipper would thrive. As the only resistance-trained (at the time, Stu deviated but he's back under the bar) guy in the lab, I was the odd man out. Tipper would always rib me by saying “if the building burns, I will run outside and wait for you” to which I would retort “on the way out I will lift the debris from on top of you so you CAN run out”. The typical and continuous banter that accompanied a friendship with Tipper.
Moving On
Though Tipper’s academic prowess and acumen continued to grow, he was not entirely amenable to the clinical work that was required in our burn’s hospital. This prompted his decision to take a job in the UK at Birmingham, where he continued to contribute to the exercise and nutrition literature and develop masters and doctoral students. Thankfully, we continued to collaborate when possible. To his credit, we kept in continued contact over the years, lately with video chats. To the end, Tipper had a tremendous love for everything soccer and rugby, making his European disposition perfect for him. As a former UK soccer player, he was also about everything UK. Those video chats would often be an hour long, covering everything from science to sports to life in general. Most importantly, there were plenty of laughs. In fact, if I could characterize the most memorable aspect of our friendship, all the great science, research, and discussions aside, it would be the consistency of laughs. It was hard not to interact with Tipper and not break into laughter. I will miss those talks dearly. In this vein, I will sign off as we signed off after all those conversations over the years: I miss you my friend, and I love you.
RIP Dr. Kevin Tipton.