Carl W. Driever (1938 -2025)

College Community Mourns Passing of Professor Emeritus, Mading Society Member

Oct. 22 — The University of Houston College of Pharmacy community is mourning the passing of Professor Emeritus Carl W. Driever, Ph.D., a college faculty member and administrator for 32 years, on Oct. 11 in Sugar Land at the age of 87.

After earning his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University, Driever spent a short teaching stint at the University of Maryland College of Pharmacy where he met Kenneth L. Euler, Ph.D. Both Driever and Euler joined UHCOP in 1967.

Although a pharmacologist by education and research pursuits, Driever served as a member of the college's clinical pharmacy faculty, incorporating more basic clinical knowledge and practical clinical skills into the curriculum. In the early 1970s, Driever even became a faculty preceptor and developed experiential rotations with the-now Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He would later become clinical coordinator for all clinical internships.

Around this time, Driever teamed with fellow faculty members Thomas L. Lemke, Ph.D., now professor emeritus, and Mike Cramer to create a new undergraduate course "Use and Misuse of Drugs and Chemicals." Initially only attracting a small number of students, the course took off in popularity—drawing 500-plus students and offered in fall, spring and summer—after it was approved as a core science elective by the university.

Driever also is credited for helping to redesign the Pharmacy Care Lab at the college's former Texas Medical Center campus and his prominent role in the development and initial rollout of the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) curriculum in 1997 before his retirement two years later.

He also authored or coauthored research published in the American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (AJHP), Cancer Treatment Reports, the International Journal of Neuropharmacology, the Journal of Dairy Science, the Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, and Life Sciences. Driever also coauthored a letter to the editor in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), disputing the conclusions of a study published in the NEJM; Driever and his colleagues later published a more detailed paper on their findings in AJHP.

Outside of his academic/research activities, Driever was an avid fisherman who cajoled colleagues into participating in an annual fishing tournament on Lake Livingston. Driever also was part of the "Pill Rollers" (aka "Bowling for Tenure") pharmacy bowling team that participated—and even won the title—in the campuswide UH Faculty Staff League. He also enjoyed painting, woodworking, building models, and spending time with his family.

In his retirement years, Driever volunteered as a docent/volunteer guild member and leader of the Ecoteen program for the Houston Museum of Natural Science. He also was a regular attendee of a monthly lunch of UHCOP retired faculty/staff, which included longtime colleagues Lemke, Sandra Webb ('66, '71), Lynn Simpson ('97), Doug Eikenburg, and Shirley Mitchell and the now-departed Euler, James T. McCarty ('52), and Shara L. Zatopek ('74).

In addition to his professor emeritus status, Driever was a member of the college's Mading Society of benefactors.

Driever was preceded in death by his parents, Myra and Carl Driever, and his wife Sue. He is survived by children, Layne and Debbi Trosper and Scott and Susan Driever, seven grandchildren, a great-grandchild, and a sister. Services for Driever were set for Oct. 25 at The Settegast-Kopf Company at Sugar Creek. In lieu of flowers, the Driever family invites memorial gifts tin his memory to the College of Pharmacy Student Scholarship Fund or the Houston Museum of Natural Science.