Robert William Schrier

Abstract

Nephrologist and academic leader. He was born in Indianapolis, IA, USA, on Feb 19, 1936, and died with dementia in Potomac, MD, USA, on Jan 23, 2021, aged 84 years. As a teenager, Robert Schrier was spotted playing in a summer baseball team and offered the chance to join a Brooklyn Dodgers spring training camp. For the tall, athletically inclined Schrier, choosing between an academic future or the possibility of a professional role in the sport he loved was far from straightforward. But after due consideration he opted to study medicine, trained in nephrology, and went on to pursue a distinguished career at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, CO, USA, from which he eventually retired as Emeritus Professor of Medicine with more than 1000 publications to his name and an international reputation. “He created one of the best departments of medicine in the United States”, says Pere Ginès, Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona and Chair of the Liver Unit at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. “He was extremely successful as a [departmental] chairman, and as an educator he published the book Diseases of the Kidney and Urinary Tract, which was one of the best books in nephrology”, adds Ginès. Schrier did not, it should be noted, abandon his interest in sport. He played college baseball and basketball throughout his student years and remained an enthusiastic fan. Schrier's career began with a bachelor's degree from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN, USA, followed in 1962 with a medical qualification from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. After training posts elsewhere in Indiana and in Seattle, he went on to spend a year at Harvard University and the former Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, MA, as a research fellow in endocrinology and metabolism. Drafted into military service, Schrier then worked for 3 years at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, DC, where the metabolic unit was focusing on renal problems. This experience, combined with a period in London, UK, working for Professor Hugh de Wardener at the Charing Cross Hospital, sealed his interest in nephrology. Between 1969 and 1972, Schrier worked at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), CA. Disregarding advice that studying fluid homoeostasis would be a waste of time because everything worth knowing was already known, he followed his own instincts. These proved sound, and led him to new insights into the part played by the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin not only in health but also in various disease conditions. “These can be quite complex to manage”, says Michel Chonchol, Professor of Medicine and holder of the Mats Wahlstrom Endowed Chair in Nephrology at the University of Colorado. “He brought an understanding of the physiology behind them, eventually came up with some algorithms, and showed how we should treat such patients.” Schrier would have stayed longer at UCSF had the University of Colorado not been looking for someone to head its renal division. Schrier took the job in 1972 and served in this role until 1992. He stayed at the University of Colorado for the rest of his career. During Schrier's directorship of the Division of Renal Diseases and Hypertension, its medical staff numbers grew from just two to more than 20. What he achieved in his own specialist area, he repeated at the University of Colorado's Department of Medicine as a whole. Appointed as Chair of the department in 1976, under his leadership its staff increased from 75 to 500 and its research grant income climbed from US$3 million annually to $100 million. Schrier retired in 2002 having chaired the Department of Medicine for 26 years. As a hepatologist, Ginès spent 2 years at the University of Colorado, drawn there by Schrier's interest in the kidney complications sometimes created by concurrent liver disease. “I wanted the perspective of a nephrologist”, he says. Other topics on which Schrier worked were acute kidney injury, hypertension, and the physiology of the kidney during pregnancy and heart disease as well as liver failure. Schrier also had an interest in polycystic kidney disease (PKD). “He created one of the largest PKD centres anywhere in the world...and changed the way that we deal with a number of disease states in nephrology”, says Chonchol, who took over the running of the centre when Schrier retired. “He was very imaginative in developing hypotheses, and very good in his scientific thinking”, says Ginès. “There's no question he was an amazing leader”, adds Chonchol. “He was a very gentle man. Firm but gentle. And very nurturing. People always wanted to work with him.” Schrier leaves his wife, Barbara, and children, David, Deborah, Denise, Derek, and Douglas.