Donald E. McMillan, Ph.D. was born in Butler, PA on Sept. 23, 1937. Dr. McMillan earned his B.S. degree from Grove City College, Grove City, PA, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Upon completion of his Ph.D. he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School under the direction of Drs. William H. Morse and Peter B. Dews. In 1967 he moved to Downstate Medical Center, SUNY, where he served as an Instructor and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology. After 2 yrs he moved to the Department of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina, rising to the rank of Full Professor.
In 1978 he accepted the position as Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, AR. Upon expansion of the Department in 1980 he became the Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. In 1991 Dr. McMillan was named the inaugural recipient of the Wilbur D. Mills Chair of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Prevention. He stepped down as Chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Wilbur D. Mills Chair in 2004. He continued as a Research Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology until his retirement and promotion to Emeritus Professor in 2007.
Dr. McMillan published over 230 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on the effects of drugs of abuse and neurotoxins on the behavior of laboratory animals. He served on numerous scientific review panels for government agencies including NIH, NIMH, NIDA, NIEHS, EPA and the Veteran's Administration. During his tenure as Chair of Pharmacology and later as Chair of Pharmacology and Toxicology he recruited many outstanding young faculty and increased the extramural funding of the Department from less than $25,000/yr to a level that which placed the Department in the top third of all Pharmacology Departments in the United States.
He was instrumental in securing the funding and faculty for the graduate program in Environmental and Occupational Health, now a separate department in the College of Public Health. In 1993 Dr. McMillan started the Substance Abuse Treatment Clinic at UAMS and was the first basic scientist to direct a clinical treatment center in the history of the University. He was a member of many scientific societies including AAAS, the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Society of Toxicology, Eastern Psychological Association, Committee on Problems of Drug Dependence, Behavioral Pharmacology Society, and the Behavioral Toxicology Society and held significant leadership positions in many of these societies.
Dr. McMillan served on the Editorial Board for many journals including the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Psychopharmacology, Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Neurotoxicology, and Neurobehavioral Toxicology and Teratology. During his career he received many awards and honors including being the inaugural recipient of the UMAS Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award (1993), the Nyswander-Dole Award from the American Methadone Treatment Association (2000), the Peter B. Dews Life-Time Achievement Award from ASPET (2010) and several Red Sash Teaching awards from UAMS.
Dr. McMillan died in Seattle, WA on May 7, 2025 following a stroke.
*This obituary was submitted by Galen R. Wenger, Ph.D.