The Honorary Doctor Fitzpatrick

Abstract

The black Harvard chair next to my treadmill is perfectly stable; I lean against it while stretching and see the brass plaque: Lowell A. Goldsmith, MD, Harvard Medical School, Department of Dermatology, 1967–73. The chair moved with me to Duke, Rochester, and once again to North Carolina, a tangible reminder of my Harvard years. More important than the knowledge from Harvard, the skills from the clinic and laboratory, were the attitudes and goals that TBF was expounding on Fruit Street, and I began important personal and professional relationships that have lasted over 35 years. Especially important were the role models of the keen young faculty: Baden, Freedberg, Arndt, and many others who were models for my career. Attending Brandeis after 2 years of residency for immersion in biochemistry was a direct copy of the path already taken by Baden and Freedberg. Reading and critiquing the chapters for the first edition of Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine was a treat, and my many comments, impertinent no doubt for a first-year resident, I signed with my initials, LAG, mimicking the professor, TBF. This led him to coin the phrase “the LAG test”. It was a great pleasure, during my Inauguration as the Dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester, to give Fitz something that I knew he would enjoy: an Honorary Doctor of Science degree. His remarks on that occasion, which have not been published before, are reproduced below from a typescript that was pasted into TBF's gift to me, The Color Atlas and Synopsis of Clinical Dermatology; the speech shows the quintessential Fitz, with many learned quotes and a great sense for the power of language. He'll be missed. When one is 76, and receives an honorary degree from a prestigious medical school, it is well to pause and think about just what is success. Paul Samuelson, the Nobel Laureate in Economics, says about scientists: “The coin they seek is not apples, nuts and yachts: nor is it the coin itself, or power as that term is ordinarily used. The fame they seek … is fame with their peers, recognition for having contributed to the empire of science.” Therefore, the most rewarding feature of this honorary degree for me is that I am being recognized by one of my peers, Dr Lowell A. Goldsmith, your new Dean. It was evident, early on, that Lowell possessed creativity and innovation, the two outstanding qualities I regard as perhaps the most predictive of a meritorious career. What I have admired most about Lowell is that he has what E. B. White attributed to Harold Ross, the founder of the New Yorker magazine: “Ross had a thing that is at least as good as, and sometimes better than knowledge: he had a sort of natural drive in the right direction, plus a complete respect for the work and ideas and opinions of others.” Highly creative people are difficult to manage and this will be Goldsmith's task as a Dean of your Medical School. I am sure Dean Goldsmith would agree with what William James, the Harvard physician, psychologist, and philosopher said: “Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university, where a few undisciplinables … may be infinitely more precious than a faculty-full of orderly routinists.” But I am not worried, because Lowell has always had “people skills”: warm, approachable, enthusiastic, generous – these are essentials for a Dean. But, Lowell, let me remind you of what the nun who corresponded with Bernard Shaw wrote: “The Bishop, after having just been elected, remarked: ‘I have heard the truth for the last time’.” Handwritten on the title page of the Atlas:For LAGYour invitation and degree-granting was a highlight of my career because it is proof that I myself have passed the“LAG test”!TBFRochesterOctober 10, 1996 A video of TBF's speech and degree presentation are available online at: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/products/journals/suppmat/jid/jid22234/jid22234sm.htm