Dr. John Shapiro was born in Maury County, TN and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1938 and from Vanderbilt Medical School in 1941. He served an internship in surgery at Case Western Reserve University and then entered the U.S. Army during World War II. He received the Combat Infantry Medical Badge in 1944 for service in the Italian Campaign where he was seriously wounded. This injury convinced him to pursue teaching rather than a traditional, patient-oriented medical career. He returned to Vanderbilt as a resident in pathology in 1948 and rose through the academic ranks to become Professor of Pathology. He was subsequently named chair of the department in 1956 upon the retirement of Dr. Ernest W. Goodpasture. After his retirement in 1970, Dr. Shapiro established a medical clinic at the Nashville Union Rescue Mission. He ran the clinic three days per week, providing primary care for some forty patients per day. After his death in 1983, Dr. Shapiro's friends and students established a Chair in Pathology in his honor.