Dr. Stanley Klatsky was born in Wilmington, Delaware. When Stanley was 8 years old, during World War II, his father was drafted into the Navy and the family moved to Baltimore. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, graduating in 1955. By that time, Stanley had decided he wanted to be a physician. While on duty at the Army Reserve at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, he began applying to medical schools and, following his active duty tour, he worked as a pharmacist in downtown Baltimore while awaiting acceptance. Interestingly, he had filled prescriptions for Dr. Harry Linden (who was in the first graduating class of The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine), and Dr. Linden supported his application to medical school. Stanley also met his wife Rosalie (Fig. 1) during this time; they were married in 1960, and subsequently had two sons, Alan and Mark (Fig. 2).Fig. 1.: Stanley and Rosalie Klatsky at an Aesthetic Society event (left) and more recently at another formal event (right). (Photographs courtesy of the Klatsky family.).Fig. 2.: Stanley Klatsky and his family. Stanley and Rosalie Klatsky, and their sons Alan and Mark (left). Dr. Klatsky enjoying a recent dinner with his sons Alan and Mark (right). (Photographs courtesy of the Klatsky family.).TRAINING After graduating from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1962, Stanley interned at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, where he completed a general surgery residency. Considering a career in cardiac surgery or neurosurgery, he volunteered for a clinical clerkship in open heart surgery at Walter Reed Hospital. At that time, the cardiac and plastic surgery operating rooms shared a common break room, where he was first exposed to plastic surgery. It did not take him long to realize one of the key differences between plastic surgery patients and those on the cardiac service: the former almost always ended up alive and happy. He decided that plastic surgery was, in fact, his calling. Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York was where Stanley served his plastic surgery residency. It was one of the premier plastic surgery training programs at the time. He began his training in 1966 under the directorship of Dr. George Crikelair. Given his background in general surgery, Stanley initially was interested in reconstructive surgery, especially head and neck cancer. Crikelair was a plastic surgeon who “operated on everything from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet” (Klatsky), and his special interest in children’s burns is credited with saving many lives. Although he was introduced to aesthetic surgery during his training in New York, such surgery was not well acknowledged in academic plastic surgery circles. EARLY CAREER After finishing his residency in 1968, Dr. Klatsky moved back to Baltimore to begin private practice and affiliated as part-time staff at Johns Hopkins under the direction of Milton Edgerton, M.D. He was the ninth plastic surgeon in the Baltimore community. One of his mentors from Columbia Presbyterian, Dr. Jerome Webster, warned: “Now just remember, son, when you go down there to the school of Halsted, you’ll be the new ballplayer. Just make sure you get on first base and don’t go for the long ball.” In Baltimore, he began to concentrate on aesthetic surgery. Stanley didn’t just get on first base; he became a “World Series Champion” in aesthetic surgery. Dr. Klatsky was a respected member of the community of plastic surgery. In the 1970s, Dr. Klatsky with Dr. Hoffman pioneered in Maryland the use of the “all-in-one mastectomy and immediate reconstruction technique,” all done at the time of the mastectomy, published in 1985. He was a founding member of the John Staige Davis Society of Plastic Surgeons of the State of Maryland in the 1960s, and served as its president in 1981. He was also a founding member of the New England Society of Plastic Surgeons and went on to numerous officer and representative positions on the New England Society of Plastic Surgeons, American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, American College of Surgeons, and the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation. He was chief of staff at Northwest Hospital Center (Fig. 3).Fig. 3.: Stanley Klatsky lecturing on aesthetic surgery at Northwest Hospital in Maryland.THE AESTHETIC SOCIETY Stanley was involved at the very inception of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. He attended the first organizational meeting in New Orleans that would eventually lead to the formation of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery in 1968. He was elected by the board of directors as the new candidate representative, held innumerable positions in the Society, and became president in 1986. He was very committed to maintaining a record of the history of American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery and led the project “35 Years and Counting”—the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery retrospective featuring interviews of its presidents. He was consistently devoted to mentoring others, and both initiated and fostered many collaborative international relationships. He was cited as one of the World’s Distinguished Aesthetic Surgeons, and received the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Distinguished Service Award in 2001. “He maintained a ‘DiMaggio-like’ attendance record at American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery meetings and symposia for just short of 50 years” (D. Morello). He was instrumental in establishing criteria for safety and credentialing in the operating rooms through the American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities. AESTHETIC SURGERY JOURNAL Stanley had a remarkable impact on the development of the Aesthetic Surgery Journal, serving as Editor-in-Chief from 1998 to 2008. At the time he became Editor, the journal was published six times per year and divided into two sections: clinical articles and peer-reviewed scientific articles. Stanley devoted himself to publishing 12 excellent issues per year. Notably, it was not indexed by the National Library of Medicine, a goal to which Stanley dedicated himself over the course of his 10 years, finally achieving success on the eve of his retirement as Editor in 2008.Those who knew and collaborated with Stanley Klatsky remember him: One of the aspects that stood out when interacting with Stanley and his wife Rosalie at the [American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery] meetings was his pride in his appearance. He always looked professional and radiated a willingness to serve as a mentor to those around him—Board members, new applicants, residents. He was quite the raconteur and never at a loss for words. Stanley would regale those around him with tales of the early days of the Aesthetic Society. —Robert Singer In reflecting back on the many years during which Stanley Klatsky served as a mentor and sounding board to me as well as to other senior plastic surgeons, I think of all that he did for many of us. I would always look forward to joining him for lunch or dinner, whether at a meeting or visiting with him in Baltimore or elsewhere. I knew some good stories awaited, their cadence and details in the telling, pitch perfect. The stories were frequently in response to some question I or someone else would ask, the answers drawn from some personal work or life experience. I know, too, that he enjoyed their recounting as much as I and others relished hearing them. I can’t begin to enumerate the lessons I learned from these moments. He didn’t dwell on his own past accomplishments. I think, perhaps, what lay behind him was far less important to him than that what lay ahead. And on that subject, he was more than happy to share his thoughts. —Bob Bernard Stanley loved the meetings and parties. He immensely enjoyed the camaraderie and laughter with the good friends and extended family in his chosen field. He could always be found on the dance floor or huddled in the corner enthusiastically talking “business.” —Robert Singer Stanley Klatsky succeeded me (Dr. Bernard) as editor of Aesthetic Surgery Journal [italics added]. As can happen from time to time in any volunteer organization, certain individuals will gladly accept the “title,” but not so much the necessary responsibilities and work that come with the title. Stanley was quite the opposite. He dove right into the task and worked tirelessly, making a Herculean effort to achieve indexing by the National Library of Medicine. Interestingly, after [10] years, indexing was awarded near the last day of Stanley’s tenure as Editor-in-Chief. —Bob Bernard JOHNS HOPKINS Throughout his career, Dr. Klatsky maintained a strong connection with the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, initially at Johns Hopkins and after 1988 through years of association with the Johns Hopkins/University of Maryland Plastic Surgery program. He personally contributed much to resident aesthetic education in that residency, and also created a series of educational videos with Dr. Paul Manson that are available today for all trainees at Johns Hopkins. He enjoyed lecturing and was very adept at it, and was a consistently loyal faculty member. The program continues to honor Dr. Klatsky through a quarterly lectureship, the “Stanley A. Klatsky, M.D. Business of Health Care Lectureship,” an incredibly important part of resident education that will continue for the years to come. These reflections and those of others will not be long remembered. But Stanley Klatsky’s contributions on behalf of the Aesthetic Society, the Aesthetic Surgery Journal [italics added], the History of the Aesthetic Society and [American Association for Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgery Facilities] will continue to positively impact generations of plastic surgeons. —Robert Singer and Bob Bernard