William J. Darby (1913-2001) was a Vanderbilt Professor considered among leading nutrition scientists of the 20th century. Dr. Darby made significant contributions to our knowledge of human requirements for protein, iron, folic acid, and zinc. As a teacher and mentor he enriched the lives of many generations of students. As a consultant to major charitable foundations he channeled significant funding to nutrition education and research projects.

Dr. Darby, was born in Galloway, Arkansas, November 6, 1913. He graduated MD from the University of Arkansas, and then a fellowship took him to the University of Michigan where he obtained a Ph. D. degree in Biological Chemistry. Dr. Darby came to Vanderbilt in 1942 as a Special Fellow in Nutrition of the International Health Division of The Rockefeller Foundation. The following year he moved to North Carolina where he taught at Duke and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served as Director of Nutrition for the State Board of Health. He returned to Vanderbilt in 1944 as Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine. Dr. Darby became chair of the Department of Biochemistry in 1949 and served in this position until 1971. Dr. Darby worked to obtain the outside funding that led to the establishment of the first separate identifiable nutrition unit in an American medical school. In 1972 William Darby was elected a member of the National Academy of Science and became President of the Nutrition Foundation.

Dr. Darby served as Honorary Curator for the History of Medicine Collection in the Eskind Library while in retirement. His passion for old books began in his graduate student days in the early 1940s. One of Dr. Darby's early and enduring collecting interests was the history of scurvy. Dr. Darby's research interests and his travels influenced his book collecting. As a result he collected works on nutritional problems such as goiter, anemia, protein deficiency, pellagra, and kwashiorkor.