Franklin H. Epstein—Researcher, Teacher, Clinician, and Humanist

Abstract

With the death of Franklin Harold Epstein on November 5, 2008, we lost another one of the fathers of nephrology. He made seminal contributions to research, clinical care, and teaching in nephrology and will be remembered fondly for his fierce devotion to humanity and compassion. Frank Epstein was the William Applebaum Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, working every day in the Nephrology Division at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center until just before his death at age 84. He had received numerous honors, most notably the John P. Peters Award of the American Society of Nephrology for outstanding contributions to the understanding of the mechanisms of disease in nephrology; the Bywaters Award of the International Society of Nephrology for contributions to the understanding of acute renal failure (ARF); the Edward N. Gibbs Award of the New York Academy of Medicine; and the David Hume Award of the National Kidney Foundation, its highest honor given to a distinguished scientist in the field of kidney and urologic disease. More than these accolades to Frank was his role as a model to those lucky enough to work with him: Incisive thinking, innovative ideas, questioning evidence, lifetime learning, and, most of all, respect for the individual. Frank Epstein was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1924 and graduated summa cum laude from Brooklyn College in 1944. He received his MD, cum laude , from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1947 and served as an intern and resident at the Yale New Haven Hospital. It was here that Frank fell under the spell of John P. Peters, a mentor who developed in Frank a lifelong passion for the field of fluid and electrolyte metabolism in health and disease. Frank had the utmost esteem for the critical thinking of Peters; he would be …