Professor Duane Kirking Retires After Remarkable 27 Years

In summer 2004, Duane Kirking, PhD, then 53, resigned his position as chair and professor of the College’s Department of Social and Administrative Sciences (SAS). He had 24 years of service at the University, and had achieved the professional goals he set for himself when he joined the College in 1980. More to the point, he and his wife, Marilyn, felt that the time had come to follow other, less-traveled life paths, “while we were still healthy and relatively young,” Kirking explains.

Their retirement plan, 15 years in the making, called for Marilyn, a clinical pharmacist at U-M Health System and a clinical faculty member at the College, to retire shortly after Duane. Once retired, they would devote more time to their extended families; participate more in church and select professional activities; and have greater freedom to volunteer for humanitarian missions around the U.S. and the world.

But Kirking had scarcely put his exit strategy into action when Dean Frank J. Ascione asked him to reconsider. The College needed an experienced researcher and administrator to direct its Center for Medication Use, Policy, and Economics (CMUPE). Would Kirking be willing to take on the job?

After conferring with Marilyn (who retired last December), Duane agreed to become CMUPE director for two years.

That commitment ended in August 2007, and with it, Kirking officially closed out a 27-year career at the University of Michigan, where he held faculty appointments at the College and at the School of Public Health.

Over the span of his career, he advanced from assistant professor of pharmacy administration (as SAS was then known), to full professor and SAS department chair. Along the way, he helped build the department’s professional degree curriculum; taught beginning-, intermediate-, and advanced-level PharmD and PhD courses; co-created his department’s PhD program, and served as a PhD adviser.

Kirking’s research concentrated on assessing and improving the quality of medication use. His investigations encompassed both clinical and economic aspects: the appropriateness of medication use and the most cost-effective means to achieve pharmaceutical care outcomes. In recent years, his research expanded to include broader, systematic explanations of processes and outcomes in medication-related areas including patient-centered quality measures.

A tireless advocate for pharmacy and patient care, he served in key leadership roles on many College, University, national, and international professional society boards, committees, and editorial boards; and for many years was the faculty advisor for the College’s APhA-ASP chapter.

Friendly and engaging, Kirking went out of his way to build personal relationships with students. That became more challenging over the years as professional degree classes grew from an average of about 45 students to the current average of 75, but he persisted.

“I was fortunate in teaching students their first three years and then working with some on their PharmD investigations project,” he says. “You get to know them really well that way, and that’s rewarding all by itself.”

As a teacher, Kirking stressed strategic thinking and analytical reasoning over rote memorization of facts.

“I placed minimal emphasis on exams and greater emphasis on projects,” Kirking explains. “My approach is to challenge students to think about different options, implications, alternative solutions. My view was that if you only consider one option in pharmacy then you aren’t fully applying your intellect or your education.”

Although Kirking has not practiced pharmacy in a patient-care setting for 30 years, he has always considered himself a pharmacist.

“It’s communicated in the way I teach and in the way I approach research,” he says. “I don’t take care of patients, that’s true. But I trained as a pharmacist. I have the Oath of the Pharmacist on my desk to remind my students and myself what our responsibilities are. I firmly believe that the characteristics of your professional life must be translated into your personal life. When you accept responsibility for the moral and ethical underpinnings of your profession, your actions will follow.”

Sandy Goel, PharmD’99, got to know Kirking well as a student. In addition to taking his courses, he was her PharmD investigations project mentor, and was APhA-ASP faculty advisor when Goel was chapter president. Of the many enduring lessons Goel carries with her as a result of her acquaintance with Kirking, the one that resonates most deeply was his ability to balance professional achievement and his personal life.

“Duane consistently held leadership positions in national and international pharmacy organizations, and was intensely involved in teaching, research, and student mentorship, yet he still maintained a rich personal life,” Goel says. “He showed it was possible to be both an outstanding professional and an outstanding person; that there need be no conflict between the two.”

With the road to retirement now wide open, Kirking plans to expand his involvement in the activities of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). A volunteer member of USP for 15 years, Kirking was elected to a five year term on USP’s Board of Trustees in 2005. This summer, he visited China as a representative of the USP and was on hand for the grand opening of a USP office in Shanghai. He also met with many high-ranking Chinese Food and Drug officials, both in Shanghai and at the International Pharmaceutical Federation World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Beijing.

“USP is beginning an exciting era in its history as it becomes more international,” Kirking notes. “We opened a laboratory in Hyderabad, India, in 2006, and now one in Shanghai. USP is expanding its role around the world, helping countries develop better quality medicines, and strategies for how to use them, which is my area of expertise.”

Duane also looks forward to future choral concert tours with the Detroit Conference Methodist Chorale. The Chorale is comprised of about 40 of the best singers chosen from Methodist churches throughout eastern Michigan. He and Marilyn, who celebrated their 28th anniversary in July, have already participated in several concert tours, including one this summer that took them to Russia, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.

“To qualify for the Chorale you needed to be good, or be a tenor,” demurs Kirking. “Marilyn is good.”