Please see the note below from John R. Gimpel, DO, MEd, on the life and legacy of our dear colleague
The NBOME was saddened to learn of the passing of our esteemed colleague and dear friend John E. Thornburg, DO, PhD. Dr. Thornburg died Sunday, Feb. 9, peacefully at his home in Okemos, Mich., with family after being released from the hospital on hospice undergoing treatment for heart failure.
Dr. Thornburg was professor emeritus of family medicine and pharmacology at Michigan State University-College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSU-COM). He served the NBOME as Board Chair from 2009-2011, but his unparalleled service to the NBOME spanned a tenure of 5 decades.
After years of writing and reviewing test questions and NBOME examinations on the Pharmacology Test Construction Committee for the licensure examinations, Dr. Thornburg was appointed the first Coordinator of COMLEX-USA Level 1 in the mid-1990s.
Subsequently, he served as Chair of the Product Committee and was elected to the NBOME Board of Directors and then to the Executive Committee.
Dr. Thornburg was also a key member of the Clinical Skills Testing Advisory Committee during the implementation period of the COMLEX-USA Level 2-Performance Evaluation examination from 2000-2006.
He began at Michigan State University in 1970 (a year after MSU-COM was founded) as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology after receiving a PhD in pharmacology and toxicology from Purdue University. He earned his DO degree at MSU-COM and served on MSU-COM’s faculty since 1977. He achieved Emeritus status in January 2010.
Dr. Thornburg has received numerous teaching awards and has published seven book chapters and more than 35 manuscripts.
For his outstanding leadership and commitment to the mission of the NBOME, he was awarded the Santucci Award in 2014, the organization’s highest honor. He received the American Osteopathic Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Certificate, in 2012.
Even after his decades of service to the NBOME, including as Board Chair, Dr. Thornburg continued to serve in key test development roles. He was appointed COMLEX-USA Level 1 Chair and Chair of the NBOME Department of Foundational Biomedical Sciences in 2014, serving in these roles until 2020, and he continued to participate in test development activities through 2024. As part of our 90th Anniversary celebration in June 2024, he appeared via Zoom to reflect on his NBOME roles dating back to the late 1970s.
In 2022, the NBOME launched John E. Thornburg, DO, PhD, National Faculty Leadership Award for longstanding exemplary contributions to NBOME examination development, committee work, or related activities on NBOME’s National Faculty in his honor and named him the first recipient. He said that his involvement with the NBOME had been a highlight of his career.
We remember Dr. Thornburg’s soft-spoken, kind, and professional demeanor, and his subtle and wonderful sense of humor. He was an avid reader and sports enthusiast (Go Green, Go White, and the Boilermakers).
But unequivocally the loves of his life and what he was most proud of were his lovely wife Trena and two daughters Courtney (a physician-scientist) and Cassie (an architect and teacher), and his five super-talented and charming granddaughters.
On a personal note, John was indeed a mentor, a role model, and a dear friend and colleague as he was to so many at NBOME, MSU-COM, and around the country.
90 Years, 9 Voices
In this video series created for the NBOME’s 90th anniversary in 2024, Thornburg shared his thoughts on his tenure with the NBOME and how the organization had grown.
