George William Pennington MD
Appointed 21 June 1963. Resigned 1966

George William Pennington MD was born on the 9th of September 1929 in Liverpool, England. He was born to parents George William Pennington and Mary Frances (Forbes) Pennington. He received his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from the University of Liverpool in 1956 and he later received his MD from the University in 1959. He also received his Master of Science (Msc) from the University of California in Los Angeles in 1961 and attended Trinity College Dublin, receiving his Master of Arts in 1962. 

He served with the Medical Corps in the British Royal Army between 1948 and 1950. He held various positions during his career, including; House Physician and Surgeon at Broadgreen Hospital in Liverpool from 1956-1957. He was a lecturer in Pharmacology in the University of Liverpool between 1957 and 1959. He was a research pharmacologist in UCLA from 1959 to 1960. Having been appointed in 1963, Pennington held the Chair of Pharmacology in Trinity College Dublin, until his resignation in 1966. He was the tenth person to hold the position of Head of the Department. He was also a Consultant Endocrine Pharmacologist at the Dublin Federated Hospitals from 1964.

He held a number of leadership roles including Secretary-General of the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine between 1991 and 1993, President of the Association of Clinical Pathologists from 1987 to 1988 and President of the Royal College of Pathologists since 1987. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, the British Medical Association and the Association of Clinical Pathologists 

He married Barbara Ann Broadbent Pennington on the 11th of July, 1959. Together,, they have two daughters, Gillian Ann Pennington and Allison Elizabeth Pennington. He has a keen interest in Golf.