Faculty

Felix E. Demartini, MD, professor emeritus of clinical medicine and president and CEO of Presbyterian Hospital for nearly a decade, died Nov. 7, 2016. A graduate of Columbia College and P&S, he spent his entire career at Columbia. He served as hospital president from 1977 until the mid-1980s, overseeing a modernization program that included the construction of the Allen Pavilion (now Allen Hospital) and the Milstein Hospital Building. See more in the alumni In Memoriam, Class of 1946.

Henry S. “Harry” Lodge, MD, the Robert L. Burch Family Professor of Medicine and chair and CEO of New York Physicians, LLP, died March 10, 2017. He spent his entire medical career at Columbia, joining the faculty of P&S and the hospital staff after completing an internal medicine internship and residency at Columbia-Presbyterian. With a patient, Dr. Lodge wrote the popular best-selling “Younger Next Year” book series. As director of the Health Sciences Communication Project, which oversaw the Columbia Public Voices Fellowship Program, Dr. Lodge sought to inspire Columbia faculty to participate in public discourse on medicine, health, and well-being. See more in Alumni In Memoriam, Class of 1985.

Lewis P. “Bud” Rowland, MD, chair of neurology at P&S and director of the Neurological Institute of New York for 25 years and a leader in American neurology, died March 16, 2017. When Dr. Rowland was recruited to P&S in 1973 to chair neurology, it was a return to the medical center where he trained in neurology before joining the faculty. He rose through the ranks to become a full professor before being recruited to the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 to chair neurology for six years before returning to Columbia.

At Columbia, he founded and co-directed the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center until 1999 and founded and co-directed the H. Houston Merritt Clinical Research Center for Muscular Dystrophy and Related Diseases at Columbia. Known for research in neuromuscular diseases and age-related neurodegenerative diseases, especially ALS, Dr. Rowland wrote many papers and edited two books on ALS. He was editor-in-chief of the journal Neurology from 1977 to 1987 and had been a member of the editorial boards of the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of Neurological Sciences. He was the editor of Merritt’s “Textbook of Neurology,” “Current Neurologic Drugs,” and “Clinical Cases in Neurology.” He also authored “The Legacy of Tracy J. Putnam and H. Houston Merritt: Modern Neurology in the United States” and wrote the history of the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, even though he was fired from the NINDS during the McCarthy era for his work with the American Association of Interns and Medical Students and his advocacy for national health insurance.

Dr. Rowland was past president of the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. He was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, formerly called the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Rowland received bachelor’s and medical degrees from Yale University.

Other Faculty Deaths

Anne Bernstein, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry, died Oct. 31, 2016. See more in Alumni In Memoriam, Class of 1970 PSY.

Nas S. Eftekhar, MD, professor emeritus of clinical orthopedic surgery, died Nov. 14, 2016.

Michael C. Pitter, MD, assistant professor of obstetrics & gynecology, died Dec. 24, 2016.

Laura Ponticorvo, PhD, research associate in biochemistry and obstetrics & gynecology, died Dec. 8, 2016.

Eleanor Shelly, retired instructor in occupational therapy and former director of occupational therapy services at Presbyterian Hospital, died Feb. 16, 2016.