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1970s
William H. Dietz Jr., M.D. ’70, G.M.E ’74, Ph.D., was appointed to the scientific advisory board of Weight Watchers International, Inc., to inform and advise the company as it continues to develop innovative offerings based on the latest scientific evidence. In 2014, Dietz joined the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University as the director of the Sumner M. Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness. The focus of the center is the search for solutions to obesity and other public health problems that are on the rise worldwide. A member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dietz is the editor of five books, including Clinical Obesity in Adults and Children and Nutrition: What Every Parent Needs to Know.
David R. Snydman, M.D. ’72, received the 2015 Walter E. Stamm Mentor Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center, where he serves as the hospital epidemiologist and as an attending physician. As division chief, he was an innovator in developing a formal mentorship program in the late 1990s, modeled on a Ph.D. thesis committee structure, to provide more guidance to fellows as they progress through their training. In addition, for the past 10 years, Snydman has served as director of a successful grant program – funded by the National Institutes of Health – to train independent infectious diseases investigators in clinical research.
An accomplished researcher with broad interests in transplant-related infectious diseases, infection control, and clinical microbiology, Snydman has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and edited 20 books, including the third edition of Transplant Infections. For the past 16 years, he has been section editor of the Immunocompromised Host section of Clinical Infectious Diseases. Among his honors is the Distinguished Faculty Award from Tufts University School of Medicine.
Louis A. Matis, M.D. ’75, was named senior vice president and chief development officer of Pieris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotechnology company. He brings to Pieris a successful background in developing novel biotherapeutics over a span of two decades. At Pieris, his work will advance therapeutic proteins based on its proprietary Anticalin® technology into and through clinical trials in anemia, asthma, and immuno-oncology.
Josephine J. (Gargiulo) Templeton, M.D., G.M.E. ’75, who retired as senior clinical anesthesiologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, received the Special Achievement Award in Philanthropy from the National Italian American Foundation. Born in Capri, Italy, Templeton spent much of her early education in the United States but returned to Italy in 1961 to attend medical school. Upon her return to the United States for her postgraduate training at the Medical College of Virginia, she met her husband, John M. Templeton Jr., M.D. She did a residency in anesthesiology at HUP and a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology and critical care at the Children’s Hospital. Templeton has been involved in numerous philanthropic and community activities. She serves as a trustee of The John Templeton Foundation, which her late husband served as president and chairman; the Museum of the American Revolution; and the scholarship foundation of the Union League of Philadelphia. Templeton was honored by the Salvation Army in 2005, and she and her husband received the 2006 Heroes of Liberty Award from the National Liberty Museum.
Peter T. Pugliese, M.D. ’57, is the author of The Cookie Doctor: An American Physician’s Memoir of Life’s Obstacles and Miracles (The Topical Agent LLC, 2014). He spent two decades as a family practitioner in rural Bernville, Pa., where many of his patients were part of the Pennsylvania Dutch community. Since retiring from clinical practice in 1978, he became more involved in anti- aging research and skin care. Author of Advanced Professional Skin Care and Physiology of the Skin (3rd edition, 2011), he is the founder of Circadia by Dr. Pugliese, maker of skin-care products, and has been honored with the Maison G. de Navarre Medal Award, presented by the Society of Cosmetic Chemists.
The Cookie Doctor draws its name from the fact that Pugliese and other country doctors were often paid in commodities and received gifts of produce, meats, and sweets. But, as the author notes, that abundance was not always beneficial:
“Obesity and diabetes were two diseases I had to battle constantly in my patients. . . . At one farm, where I happened to be stuck in a snowdrift, the farmer invited me for breakfast before he pulled my car from the snow with his tractor. The breakfast consisted of fried eggs, fried potato, and sausage. This was followed by pancakes and scrapple, a butcher-scrap specialty whose ingredients are best left un-itemized. The mixture is ground up, formed into a loaf, dredged in flour, fried, and served covered with maple syrup. Finally, coffee was accompanied by coconut cake. I estimate that I had consumed close to three thousand calories that morning. No wonder I was facing an uphill battle against obesity in the Pennsylvania Dutch.”
In his first chapter, Pugliese writes that his path to being a doctor “was by no means a direct route. After first setting out to be a priest, then a Marine during World War II, then a college student, then a soldier in the armored division during the Korean War, I became a premedical student and eventually a medical student. It was a long and arduous trip.” Along the way, he says, “I found God, lost him, and found him again. . . .”
Bernville, where Pugliese lived in a stone farmhouse, is about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia. It sounds like a wonderful place to raise a family, but as The Cookie Doctor points out, it was also a place where husbands sometimes abused their wives, incest was more common than Pugliese ever expected, postpartum depression sometimes ravaged families, and the doctor even had to deal with a woman who was convinced she was hexed by an unfriendly neighbor.
Pugliese does not overlook his time as a medical student at Penn. He survives attending a high-pressure operation with I. S. Ravdin, then the celebrated chair of surgery, who would quiz the students, and learns a valuable lesson from Francis Wood, chairman of the Department of Medicine. Wood had a group of students examine the same patient, then suggest some diagnostic tests and a course of treatment. The patient was an 80-year-old woman who showed signs of cerebral insufficiency. Afterward, Wood heard their diagnostic procedures. “Most of us had suggested arteriograms, perhaps a pneumoencephalogram, and then one or two other arduous and painful tests.” Then Wood asked what they would do if the woman was their mother or grandmother.
“Somewhat startled, we said that we would do none of those awful tests, but limit our test to the smallest number of painless procedures. . . . Dr. Wood said softly, ‘Do you not realize this lady is someone’s wife or mother or grandmother? As a physician, you must treat every patient as though that patient was your mother or your wife or sister or brother or father.’ . . . The class was dumbstruck. We had never heard this sentiment expressed by any other physician in the past three years. I recognized this advice was the single most important key to practicing good medicine.”
Robert J. Laskowski, M.D. ’78, M.B.A. ’83, has been appointed chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges. A board-certified general internist with additional certification in geriatric medicine, Laskowski is a professor of clinical medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College and a senior fellow at the Jefferson College of Population Health at Thomas Jefferson University. He has a wealth of past experience in leading both medical entities and medical education, including serving as president and chief executive officer of Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del., from 2003 to 2014.
Samuel O. Okpaku, M.D., Ph.D., G.M.E. ’78, reports that Essentials of Global Mental Health (Cambridge University Press), which he edited, received High Commendation at the British Medical Association 2015 Book Awards. A former fellow in Penn’s Depression Research Unit and a former faculty member of Penn’s Department of Psychiatry, Okpaku is executive director of the Center for Health, Culture, and Society in Nashville. He has served as chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College.
Jennifer Chu, M.D., G.M.E. ’79, who retired from Penn Medicine as associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, is CEO and founder of eToims® Medical Technology, LLC. She is the first author of a study published this year in BMJ Case Reports, describing chronic refractory myofascial pain (CRMP) as a global public health disease. The study underscores the authors’ previous findings that electrical twitch-obtaining intramuscular stimulation (eToims) is safe and efficacious for long-term use in CRMP.
1980s
Roy M. Kulick, M.D. ’81, G.M.E. ’85, has been named clinical development advisor of M Pharmaceutical, Inc., a clinical-stage company developing innovative technologies for monitoring and treating obesity, diabetes, and other gastroenterological indications. Kulick will prepare clinical trial plans for the company’s lead product, Trimeo, a weight-loss capsule.
Donald W. Rucker, M.D. ’81, was appointed chief medical officer of Premise Health, a worksite health and patient-engagement company. A pioneer in medical information and technology, Rucker earlier served as chief operating officer of the IDEA Studio at the Wexner Medical Center of Ohio State University, where he was also clinical professor of emergency medicine and biomedical informatics. In his new role, Rucker will lead Premise Health’s clinical teams and share his expertise in biomedical informatics and data analytics.
Reynold A. Panettieri Jr., M.D. ’83, G.M.E. ’90, who had been the Robert L. Mayock and David A. Cooper Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has joined Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. He is the inaugural director of what will be a new clinical and translational science institute. A pulmonologist, immunologist, and translational researcher, Panettieri has studied the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate airway smooth muscle cell growth and the immunobiology of airway smooth muscle. He has also directed the comprehensive clinical program for the care of patients with asthma and is actively involved in clinical investigations focused on the management of asthma and COPD. At Penn Medicine, Panettieri’s positions included chief of the asthma section for the pulmonary, allergy and critical care division and deputy director of the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology. At Rutgers, he will lead all clinical and translational research initiatives across RBHS and lead initiatives to expand independent clinical research funding.
Paul E. Jarris, M.D. ’84, has been named senior vice president of maternal and child health program impact and deputy medical officer at the March of Dimes. Jarris, an expert in health-care policy, clinical quality initiatives, disease prevention, and wellness, will lead the new department and will have overall responsibility for its prematurity campaign. Formerly, he was executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
Susan L. Williams, M.D., G.M.E. ’84, was appointed chief medical officer for Conemaugh Health System, of Duke LifePoint Healthcare. She will lead Conemaugh in enhancing quality and expanding its physician network.
Junius John Gonzales, M.D. ’86, M.B.A., is serving as interim president of the University of North Carolina. Previously the senior vice president for academic affairs at the 17-campus system, he will serve as president until March 1, 2016. From 2011 to 2014, he was provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is a psychiatrist by training.
Victoria Tishman Handa, M.D. ’86, was named director of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and deputy director of gynecology and obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She and her research team at the university’s Women’s Center for Pelvic Health specialize in women’s health research, epidemiology, and pelvic floor disorders. Handa is a reconstructive surgeon and author of more than 100 scientific papers.
1990s
Stephen Joseph Pakola, M.D. ’94, G.M.E. ’98, has joined Aerpio Therapeutics, Inc., as its first chief medical officer. Previously, at ThromboGenics, he invented and developed its lead product, Jetrea, from its inception through the FDA’s Biologics License Application process. At Aerpio, he will lead the advancement of the company’s development pipeline, including its lead therapeutic candidate, AKB-9778, for the treatment of diabetic macular edema.
Santosh Kesari, Ph.D. ’96, M.D. ’99, was appointed to the scientific advisory board of Therapeutics Solutions International, Inc., and to the advisory board of GenSpera, Inc., a biotech company that develops innovative pro-drug therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Kesari is currently professor of neurosciences and chair of neuro-oncology and neurotherapeutics at the John Wayne Cancer Institute at Providence St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. His research investigates the biology of gliomas with the aim of developing new therapeutics for patients with brain tumors.
Kevin G. M. Volpp, M.D. ’96, Ph.D. ’98, has been named lead advisor for patient engagement for the recently launched NEJM Catalyst. The online resource connects health-care executives, clinical leaders, and clinicians with practical approaches to improve the value of health-care delivery and patient care. Volpp is director of the Center for Health Initiatives and Behavioral Economics and a professor of medicine, medical ethics and health policy, and health management at the University of Pennsylvania.
2000s
Nishan de Silva, M.D. ’00, M.B.A. ’00, president and chief operating officer of Poseida Therapeutics, Inc., was appointed to its board of directors. He previously served on the boards of three public companies and several private companies. Poseida is a biotechnology company that uses gene editing technologies to develop life-saving therapies, including gene therapy for orphan liver diseases and immune-oncology therapeutics for several types of cancer.
Jason S. Chinitz, M.D. ’07, has joined the cardiology team at Southside Hospital in Bay Shore, N.Y. He is board certified in cardiovascular disease and internal medicine.
2010s
Rachel Anolik, M.D. ’11, who completed her medical training at Boston University, was appointed assistant professor of dermatology at Temple University’s School of Medicine and director of medical dermatology and inpatient service at Temple University Hospital and Fox Chase Cancer Center.
Marc A. Wolman, Ph.D., G.M.E. ’15, assistant professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin, was honored by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation with a $200,000 grant through its Shaw Scientist Program. The annual award supports emerging investigators with innovative ideas in biochemistry, biological sciences, and cancer research. The goal of Wolman’s research is to understand how genes function to allow the brain to learn. His team recently identified a set of genes used by the brain to encode for a simple form of learning called habituation and noted that any disruption in the function of these genes leads to learning impairment. With his award, he plans to explore how one of these genes affects neuronal connections to promote learning.
Wolman was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Michael Granato, Ph.D., a professor of cell and developmental biology at Penn Medicine. Wolman was first author and Granato senior author on a research paper published last year in Neuron. The team described the first set of genes important in learning in a zebrafish model.
OBITUARIES
1940s
Alice Robinson Erb, M.D. ’40, Lanesboro, Mass., a retired physician; August 18, 2014. She served as clerk of Lehigh Valley Friends Meeting (Quakers), a board member of the American Friends Service Committee, a Girl Scout council treasurer and troop leader, a founder of the Allentown League of Women Voters, and a board member of Allentown Planned Parenthood.
Kenneth M. Scott, M.D. ’41, G.M. ’47, Black Mountain, N.C., a retired physician for the state Department of Public Health; September 15, 2014. He was born in Tsingtao, in the German Crown Colony, a son of Presbyterian missionaries in China. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he was director and chief surgeon at the Presbyterian Hospital in Taegu, Korea, and later professor of surgery at Severance Hospital in Seoul. He and his family moved to Punjab, India, where Scott served as director of the Christian Medical College and Hospital. It comprised an 800-bed hospital, a medical college of 350 students, a nursing school, and several subsidiary hospitals. The Scotts returned to western North Carolina in 1974, and he worked at the Black Mountain Center as a physician in North Carolina’s tuberculosis program.
Swithin Chandler Jr., M.D. ’43, G.M. ’55, Salt Lake City, a retired medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration; November 11, 2014. During World War II, he served in the 3rd Army with General Patton. He was with the 125th evacuation hospital and was a forensic pathologist and traveled throughout Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Holland. Wounded and awarded the Purple Heart, he was honorably discharged as a captain. After returning to the United States he practiced medicine in Trenton, N.J., Capistrano Beach, Calif., and Phoenix, Ariz., and settled in Salt Lake City. As an FAA examiner, he served many pilots in the intermountain area. Chandler received his pilot’s license in 1932 at the age of 17. He accumulated 6,210 hours of flight time and flew a variety of aircraft.
Howard N. Douds, M.D. ’43, Upper St. Clair, Pa.; November 7, 2014. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He was an internist in Mt. Lebanon and on staff at St. Clair Hospital from 1954 until his retirement in 2008.
Robert K. Moxon, M.D. ’43, G.M. ’48, West Columbia, S.C., a retired physician; January 28, 2015. In World War II, he was assigned to a beachmaster unit with Amphibious Forces during the invasion of Okinawa. He served as the ship’s doctor on the U.S.S. Piedmont during the occupation of Japan. Later in his Navy career, he was chief of medical services at the Naval hospitals in Annapolis, Md., and Portsmouth, Va. Retiring from the Navy with the rank of captain in 1963, he became director of medical education at Columbia Hospital. After retiring from an internal medicine practice, he served as consultant in internal medicine for Medicare utilization in the South Carolina Professional Review Organization, as an expert witness for Social Security Disability, and taught health topics at the Shepherd’s Center of Columbia, where he was a member of its board of directors.
Richard A. “Buz” Cooper, M.D., New York City, former chief of hematology in the Department of Medicine and a pioneering cancer research scientist; January 15, 2016. He wrote the grant proposal to create what would become the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center (now the Abramson Cancer Center) and served as its director from 1977 to 1985. Cooper served most recently as director of the Center for the Future of the Healthcare Workforce at New York Institute of Technology and as a senior fellow in Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.
Cooper began his clinical and investigative training in hematology and oncology in the 1960s at the National Cancer Institute and Boston City Hospital’s Thorndike Memorial Laboratory. He rose to be Thorndike’s chief of hematology as an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School, then joined the Penn faculty in 1971. He returned to his home town of Milwaukee to serve as dean and executive vice president of the Medical College of Wisconsin from 1985 to 1994. Cooper also founded and directed its interdisciplinary Health Policy Institute (now the Institute for Health and Society) from 1994 to 2004.
In the 1990s, Cooper’s health policy research helped change how the size of the U.S. health care work force is evaluated and how future physician needs are projected. When most of the nation’s leading physician supply experts were calling for a reduction in the physician work force because of a perceived surplus, Cooper correctly predicted a shortage of doctors within the next 20 years. According to Linda Aiken, Ph.D., R.N., the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing at Penn
and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, Cooper was an innovative thinker: “He was an early advocate for nurses taking on expanded responsibilities in primary care, and he published many influential papers providing evidence to support full scope of practice for advanced practice nurses.” Cooper was also a vocal critic of the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care, which has documented variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States.
Shortly before he died, Cooper finished writing Poverty and the Myths of Health Care Reform: Why Poverty and Income Inequality Are at the Core of America’s High Health Care Spending. It is expected to be available from Johns Hopkins University Press in August 2016.
Thomas J. Nauss, M.D. ’44, G.M. ’49, Dallas, Pa., a retired plastic surgeon; December 18, 2014. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army.
Ashton T. Stewart, M.D. ’44, Quarryville, Pa., former chief of rehabilitation medicine at the VA hospital in Martinsburg, W.Va.; November 30, 2014. During World War II, he was a captain in the U.S. Army. In 1947, Ashton went to Iran as a medical missionary and served as the director of three different mission hospitals. For four years, he served in Afghanistan with International Afghan Mission, an international Christian organization. During the 1980s he opened a physical therapy school.
Alfred H. Magness, M.D. ’45, Coshocton, Ohio; January 20, 2014. He completed his general surgical training at Ohio State University Hospital and Youngstown Hospital Association and was the first Coshocton physician to be certified by a specialty board, the American Board of Surgery. A Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgeons, Magness had served as chief of staff and chief of surgery at Coshocton Hospital for many years. He was especially proud that all four of his children became physicians.
William M. Groton, M.D. ’47, Sherborn, Mass., a retired physician with the state’s Department of Public Health; January 28, 2015.
R. David Warner, M.D. ’49, Xenia, Ohio, a retired primary physician for the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphanage Home; December 27, 2014. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and the Korean War. He practiced medicine for 52 years, doing physicals for sports at many area schools, making house calls at all hours of the night, and delivering 4,000 babies.
1950s
George R. Kennedy Jr., M.D., G.M. ’50, Tulsa, Okla., a retired physician; November 6, 2014. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a captain, first as chief of surgery at Webb Air Force Base in Big Spring, Tex., and then as chief of surgery at the 36th Tactical Air Group in Bitburg, Germany. Back in the United States, he established a medical practice in Bartlesville, Okla., where he practiced medicine and surgery for more than 30 years. He had been a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and of the International College of Surgeons.
William Plummer III, M.D. ’50, G.M. ’54, West Chester, Pa., a retired physician; June 15, 2014. He was a former member of Chester County Hospital’s section on endocrinology and metabolism and helped establish the first diabetic department there.
Cliff Ratliff Jr., M.D., G.M. ’50, Ellicott City, Md., retired director of nuclear medicine at St. Agnes Hospital, from 1956 to 1990; January 28, 2015.
William J. Tuddenham, M.D ’50, G.M. ’56, Naples, Fla., emeritus professor of radiology and a former director of radiology at Pennsylvania Hospital; October 5, 2014. He was founding editor of the journal Radiographics. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserves. He was a recipient of the Gold Medal of the Radiological Society of North America.
Robert S. Ayerle, M.D. ’51, Paoli, Pa., a retired medical director in industrial and occupational medicine; November 6, 2014. After several years of employment as a research chemist with the Rohm & Haas Company, he left to pursue his true passion in medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, D.C. After discharge from the military, he began his career in industrial and occupational medicine with the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. He then became medical director of Pennsylvania Bell Telephone Company, where he administered its medical departments that served 60,000 employees. While at Bell he oversaw a number of clinical research projects, including an early breast cancer screening study. Upon retiring from Bell, he became the international medical director for the Scott Paper Company. Ayerle instituted one of the first corporate drug and alcohol treatment programs in the country, helping thousands of employees and individuals gain sobriety and lead productive lives. He also served on the President’s Council for Alcoholism and the President’s Council for Physical Fitness.
Capt. John R. Bierley, M.D., G.M. ’52, Winlock, Wash., a retired surgeon and medical officer in the U.S. Navy; August 23, 2013. He received a Purple Heart during World War II. As a civilian, he was a general surgeon and/or hospital medical director in Puerto Rico most of the years between 1935 and 1950. A Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, he also became a Diplomate of the American Board General Surgery in 1954 while in the Navy. Upon retiring from the Navy in 1970, Bierley was awarded the Joint Services Commendation Medal.
Won Y. Koh, M.D., G.M. ’52, Bound Brook, N.J., a retired physician at Somerset Medical Center; November 21, 2014. He earned his medical degree at Yonsei University in South Korea.
James B. Aycock, M.D., G.M. ’53, Sparta, N.C., a retired radiologist; January 23, 2015.
Thomas G. Dickinson, M.D., G.M. ’53, Sarasota, Fla., a retired ophthalmologist who had maintained a practice for many years; October 20, 2014. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy.
Gordon D. Myers, M.D., G.M. ’54, Mechanicsburg, Pa., a retired surgeon who had served as a primary physician for the old Pennsylvania Railroad and several motor freight companies; January 27, 2015. He joined the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and served as chief of surgery at the Dow Air Force Base Hospital in Bangor, Me., and was a captain at the time of discharge. Myers opened his own surgical office in Harrisburg in 1957. In 1965, he became the first director of the emergency department at Harrisburg Hospital. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and the Harrisburg Hospital house physicians twice honored him with the Distinguished Teacher Award.
Donald M. Cohen, M.D. ’56, Fort Worth, Tex., a retired pathologist; December 2, 2014. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps upon graduation. After his Army service, completed in Germany, he took his residency in pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He practiced 37 years with Pathology Associates at Harris Hospital and another 10 years for ProPath Laboratories.
Avery R. Harrington, M.D. ’56, Brunswick, Maine, a retired nephrologist at Maine General Medical Center; July 10, 2014. After earning his medical degree, Harrington and his wife, Carolyn, spent time on Indian reservations in Arizona. He later had a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. The Harringtons volunteered for a year at rural hospitals in Zimbabwe, where they returned three times.
John S. Strauss, M.D., G.M. ’56, Iowa City, emeritus professor of dermatology at the University of Iowa; July 28, 2014.
Marilyn Hess, Ph.D. ’57, M.S.Ed. ’85, emeritus professor of pharmacology; October 20, 2015. After earning her B.S. degree in chemistry and biology from Villa Maria College, she studied at Penn, earning her master’s degree in physiological chemistry and physiology in 1949. Her Ph.D. degree in pharmacology was the first granted at Penn. From 1946 to 1950, Hess was a research assistant at Penn. She joined the faculty in 1951 as an assistant instructor in physiology and, later that year, in pharmacology. She left her post in physiology in 1952 and rose through the ranks in pharmacology, eventually becoming full professor in 1976. That same year, she became the course coordinator for the Pharmacology Graduate Group and later became the course director of Pharmacology 100. Garret A. FitzGerald, M.D., the Robert L. McNeil Jr. Professor in Translational Medicine and Therapeutics, has described Hess’s Pharmacology 100 “the best integrated course on pharmacology for medical and graduate students developed at any university in the country. Students taking her course consistently outperformed in this discipline in national standardized tests.”
Hess served a year as acting chair of the Department of Pharmacology and served on the University’s Faculty Senate. She received the University’s Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching and the School of Medicine’s Special Dean’s Award.
Hess pursued her research on the relationship between perturbed metabolism and cardiac function. She obtained a prestigious Research Career Development Award from the NIH and became an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association (AHA). Hess retired from Penn in 1994. “It is as a teacher supreme that Marilyn will be most fondly remembered,” said FitzGerald.
Bernard A. Kirshbaum, M.D., G.M. ’57, Bala Cynwyd, Pa., a retired dermatologist; September 14, 2014.
1960s
William Preston Calvert, M.D. ’60, Marathon, Fla., a retired radiologist; January 26, 2014.
His residency in internal medicine at the Pennsylvania Hospital was interrupted by the Vietnam War, and he served as a flight surgeon at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines for two years. When his military service was completed, he returned to complete his residency as chief resident. He went on to the University of Miami, where he completed a fellowship in G.I. medicine, finished a residency in radiology, and became board-certified in radiology and nuclear medicine. During his time in South Florida, he served intervals as chief of radiology at local hospitals and spent time on the faculty of the University of Miami School of Medicine.
William Pinsky, M.D. ’61, Lansdale, Pa., a retired physician who had maintained a practice there for 38 years; November 6, 2014. As a Penn undergraduate, he was a member of the men’s baseball team.
Paul A. Urffer, M.D. ’61, Doylestown, Pa., a retired physician; December 22, 2014. He had been a radiologist at the Abington Memorial Hospital for more than 30 years. A veteran of the U.S. Army, he served during the Vietnam War.
Arno R. Hohn, M.D., G.M. ’62, Pomona, Calif., retired professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California; March 21, 2014. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he became a faculty member at Buffalo’s Children’s Hospital and then at the Medical University of South Carolina. He next served as chief of the Division of Cardiology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles from 1984 through 1999. His research focused on hypertension in pediatrics as well as heart problems in muscular dystrophy, HIV, and premature infants. Hohn was editor of Basic Pediatric Electrocardiography (1974).
Leslie P. Surrey, M.D., G.M. ’62, Philadelphia, a retired physician; November 3, 2014. He earned his M.D. degree from Howard University Medical School, then did his internship at Episcopal Hospital. While working at Germantown Hospital, he opened his own private practice and worked part time for The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union.
Arthur Ames, M.D. ’63, Storm Lake, Iowa; September 30, 2014. He overcame setbacks at an early age. Born with a club foot, he underwent more than a dozen operations to walk normally and at 16 contracted polio. After his specialty training, he was drafted into the Air Force and stationed as a surgeon at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota. Later, he started a family practice, eventually joining Buena Vista Clinic, where he remained until retiring in 1996.
Legacy Giving
“Penn gave me a full scholarship. There is no way I would have been able to afford such a great school without the wonderful financial support I received,” said Carol Herman Szarko, M.D. ’66, G.M.E. ’69. “When I started medical school, Penn guaranteed that no students would drop out for financial reasons; students would get the support and opportunities they needed to excel. Penn was good on their word.” Giving back to her medical alma mater was not a difficult decision.
“I also trust Penn; the institution is strong and secure, and the medical school has been around for 250 years.” She was confident that setting up a charitable gift annuity for herself through Penn Medicine Planned Giving was the right choice to meet her philanthropic interests. She was so satisfied with the results, she set up an annuity for her sister and brother-in-law just a few years later. By designating the annuity to support medical scholarships, Dr. Szarko is thrilled to be able to “pay it forward,” in support of current and future students.
“By using multiple appreciated stocks, I was able to simplify my stock holdings and reduce the number of statements I received,” she said in reference to her own charitable gift annuity.
In many ways, setting up a gift annuity for her sister and brother-in-law through Penn Medicine was the missing piece of the puzzle. They are retired and living modestly. “When I learned more about their financial situation, I realized how they would benefit from reliable, monthly payments, so I established a gift annuity for them.”
“Creating a planned gift, particularly a gift annuity, was an ideal way to provide guaranteed income to my family,” Dr. Szarko added. “It was uncomplicated to arrange and immensely rewarding, in terms of meeting my family’s needs and doing this through an institution to which I owe my personal gratitude.”
Planned Giving has sometimes been described by our donors as the final piece of a puzzle. Figuring out how this important puzzle piece can work best for you, your family, and your philanthropic goals is what we do best. Speak with us to learn more about giving options and we will help you find the missing piece of your puzzle. Contact Christine S. Ewan, JD, executive director of Planned Giving, at 215-898-9486 or cewan@upenn.edu.
For more information, please visit our website at med.upenn.edu/pennmedplannedgiving/.
A. Stephen Boyer, M.D. ’64, G.M. ’71, Franktown, Va., a retired physician; October 11, 2014.
Deborah M. Forrester, M.D. ’64, Malibu, Calif., an associate professor of clinical radiology, medicine, and orthopaedic surgery at the University of Southern California, where she was director of its radiology residency program from 1979 to 2003; January 17, 2015. She won several teaching honors, including the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1999. Forrester was first author of The Radiology of Joint Disease, a standard textbook in musculoskeletal radiology with three editions in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, and she contributed chapters to 20 textbooks in the fields of radiology, orthopaedic surgery, rheumatology, and neurosurgery.
Ralph G. Fennell, M.D. ’65, Parker, Colo., a retired flight surgeon; September 3, 2014. He completed a residency in aerospace medicine at Ohio State University, where he also earned an M.S. degree in preventive medicine. He joined United Airlines, where he was employed in a variety of locations over 30 years. Fennell was also a senior aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration. A former president of the Airline Medical Directors Association, he was a Fellow of the International academy of Aviation and Space Medicine.
Hazel I. Holst, M.D., G.M. ’66, Swarthmore, Pa., an emeritus associate professor of surgery at the University; April 9, 2015. An alumna of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, she had also worked at the Philadelphia VA Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her specialty became hand surgery and use of the microscope in the repair of the hand. Holst was the first woman member of the Plastic Surgery Research Council and the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery.
William E. Jacobs, M.D. ’69, G.M. ’76, Charlotte, N.C., a retired plastic surgeon; December 6, 2014.
1970s
Arthur J. Kennel, M.D., G.M. ’70, Rochester, Minn., retired assistant professor of cardiology and chair of community medicine at the Mayo Medical School; December 12, 2014. From 1970 to 1972, he served with Medical Assistance Programs International by moving his family to Kinshasa, Zaire, where he became chair of the cardiology department at the 1,500-bed Hospital Mama Yemo (now Kinshasa General Hospital). He was a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and of the American College of Chest Physicians. He published a memoir, Life, Love, Llamas, and Laughs: My Story, in 2011.
Earl L. Giller, M.D., Ph.D., G.M. ’72, Madison, Conn., April 28, 2014. Giller earned his M.D./Ph.D. degrees in neurochemistry from New York University, working in the laboratory of Eric Kandel, the future Nobel Prize winner. His career was dedicated to scientific advances in pharmaceutical development, and he taught numerous medical students at Yale University and at the University of Connecticut. He also worked for Pfizer for many years.
FACULTY
Marilyn Hess, Ph.D. See Class of 1957.
Hazel I. Holst. See Class of 1966.
John M. Templeton Jr., M.D., Bryn Mawr, Pa., a former pediatric surgeon who was president and chairman of the John Templeton Foundation; May 16, 2015. After earning his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School, he trained in pediatric surgery under C. Everett Koop, M.D., at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. He served two years in the U.S. Navy, then returned in 1977 to Children’s Hospital, where he became director of the trauma center. He also taught at Penn’s School of Medicine. During his practice, Templeton became an expert in surgeries involving conjoined twins. Many of those surgeries were undertaken with his wife, Josephine Gargiulo Templeton, M.D., G.M.E. ’75, as lead anesthesiologist. A Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, he had also been vice chairman of the American Trauma Society and was president of its Pennsylvania division. He served on several boards, including those of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the American Trauma Society.
Templeton retired from medicine in 1995 to manage the Templeton foundation, established by his father, Sir John Templeton, the global investor and philanthropist. After the death of his father in 2008, Templeton became the foundation’s top executive. Under his leadership, the foundation’s endowment grew from $28 million to $3.34 billion. The foundation awards grants, mainly to universities and scholars, and gives an annual $1.7 million Templeton Prize to honor a person who has made exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension, whether through insight, discovery, or practical works.
In addition to papers published in medical journals, Templeton wrote two books, Thrift and Generosity: The Joy of Giving (2004), and A Searcher’s Life (2008).
William J. Tuddenham. See Class of 1950.