Alumni

1947
Grange S. Coffin, an internationally recognized pediatrician who discovered the Coffin-Siris syndrome and the Coffin-Lowry syndrome, died Jan. 4, 2022. He was 98. Dr. Coffin completed a fellowship in bacteriology at the University of Chicago and served as a doctor in the U.S. Air Force at Lake Charles, Louisiana. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and later taught pediatrics at UCSF. He maintained a private practice in South Berkeley. Dr. Coffin contributed to discovery of a combination of drugs that proved highly effective in treating bacterial infections. The drug, marketed as Bactrim, was designated by WHO as an “essential medicine.” He volunteered in the city of Can Tho, Vietnam, for several challenging months during the war. He is survived by his wife, Heidi, seven children, and two grandchildren.

1948
James and MaryParke Manning died within months of each other in 2021. They had been married for 74 years after meeting during medical school. James Manning, also a graduate of Columbia College, died July 5, 2021, after a brief illness. He completed college and medical school in six years through the Navy’s World War II-era V-12 training program. He was a pediatric cardiologist and a pioneer of the field, having studied under the specialty’s founder, Dr. Helen Taussig of Johns Hopkins; he held board certification #21. He spent his career at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, where the children’s cardiology service bears his name. MaryParke Manning died Sept. 1, 2021. She became director of the pediatric clinic of Genesee Hospital in 1957 and stepped away from active medical practice in 1962 to raise her children. As a full-time mom, she launched decades of volunteer civic and public health activities. She was elected to two terms on the Penfield School Board and was active in the League of Women Voters. She was president of the board of the regional Planned Parenthood chapter and served on the boards of the Finger Lakes Health Systems Planning Agency (now Common Ground Health) and the Al Sigl Center. The Mannings are survived by four children, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

1950
Arnold Ritterband, an internist devoted to family, medicine, and public health activism, died Dec. 14, 2021. He was 95. He trained in pathology, neurology, and rheumatology at several New York City hospitals before practicing internal medicine in Schenectady for 60 years. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy as a radar technician on an aircraft carrier. He taught medicine at Albany Medical College and founded the Schenectady County Committee on Health Care Issues, which increased nursing home beds and helped establish the Schenectady County Public Health Services. Dr. Ritterband was also an anti-tobacco crusader who helped eliminate smoking in Schenectady restaurants. Upon retirement, he became co-medical director of the Schenectady Free Care clinic, which retired physicians and nurses staffed for nearly a decade. His wife, Phyllis, three children, and eight grandchildren survive him.

1951
Lila Amdurska Wallis, known as the “godmother of women’s health” for her pioneering advocacy for women’s health issues, died at age 100 on Jan. 3, 2022. She served as a clinical professor of medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center for 55 years. Dr. Wallis was born to Jewish parents in Poland. After the Nazis invaded, Dr. Wallis’ husband and brother were deported to the Klooga concentration camp, where her brother was murdered. Her husband, Ben, was one of 85 survivors. Dr. Wallis reunited with her mother and husband after the war, and they emigrated to New York to join her father. She graduated from Barnard College before medical school. She helped develop the teaching model for breast and pelvic exams used in medical schools today and authored numerous articles and textbooks on women’s health. Dr. Wallis was elected a Master of the American College of Physicians, served as president of the American Medical Women’s Association, and founded the National Council on Women’s Health. She is survived by two sons and three grandchildren.

1952
Joseph C. Shipp, a diabetes specialist, died Dec. 28, 2021, just a month before his 95th birthday. He trained at Columbia, Peter Bent Brigham, and Oxford University. He was chair of internal medicine at the University of Florida and University of Nebraska and professor of medicine at UCSF at Valley Medical Center. He served on the boards of the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and the American Diabetes Association. A Markle Scholar and Fulbright-Hayes Scholar, Dr. Shipp taught diabetes care across the globe. He established diabetes camps for children and was among the first to introduce insulin pumps. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie, four children, and a granddaughter. 

1953
Frank T. Thomas, an ophthalmologist who founded Bronxville Eye Associates, died Oct. 5, 2021. He was 96. He served as a medic in the U.S. Navy before attending Columbia College and VP&S. He was an active golfer and tennis player, a longtime member of the Bronxville Lion’s Club, and an elementary school tutor. He is survived by three children and five grandchildren.

1954
Robert “Bob” Hollister, an internist who practiced in Franklin, Tennessee, for almost 40 years, died at age 94 on Dec. 19, 2021. A native of North Carolina, Dr. Hollister spent his childhood in Korea, where his parents were Presbyterian medical missionaries. He joined the U.S. Navy in the closing years of World War II. He was medical director at Hospital Albert Schweitzer in Deschappelles, Haiti, from 1962-64. He founded the first cardiac care unit at Williamson County Hospital in Tennessee. He later joined two local physicians to found the nonprofit Claiborne and Hughes Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, still in operation. Dr. Hollister is survived by his wife, Cornelia, two sons, and two grandsons.

1955
Jerome “Jerry” Blum, who practiced ophthalmology for 30 years in Santa Clara, California, died at age 92 on Jan. 24, 2022. After medical school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and later served as an officer attached to the U.S. Marine Corps. He trained at Tulane University and Johns Hopkins and later taught Stanford University medical residents at Valley Medical Center. He led volunteer medical care missions to China, Israel, the Czech Republic, and Bosnia Herzegovina. Dedicated to veterans affairs, Dr. Blum proposed legislation requiring screening and treatment for veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq for traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. It became California law in 2008. He is survived by his wife, Jocelyn, four children, and six grandchildren.

1956
Frederick “Fred” Pasternack, a doctor who practiced law for 43 years in Miami, died Aug. 27, 2021. He was 92. Enterprising from a young age, he worked morning shifts at his parents’ bakery as a boy and drove a Good Humor ice cream truck as a teen. He trained at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami before working as a medical research liaison at Lederle Laboratories in New Orleans. He earned a law degree from the University of Miami. Dr. Pasternack is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, seven daughters, 20 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

Theodore “Ted” Robinson, a radiologist who practiced in New York for 50 years, died Jan. 1, 2022, at age 90. He began and ended his service at Columbia University, where he received his B.A. degree in 1952, completed medical school, trained as a resident at Columbia-Presbyterian, and was an attending radiologist. Dr. Robinson also served in the U.S. Public Health Service at the NIH. He held academic appointments at Cornell, the State University of New York/Downstate Medical Center, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His hospital appointments included Brooklyn, Long Island Jewish, Fordham, Queens, Kings County, and Roosevelt hospitals. Dr. Robinson was an avid tennis player. He is survived by his wife, Jo Ann.

1957
Robert Grossman, one of two neurosurgeons who attended to President John F. Kennedy when he was shot, died Oct. 7, 2021, at age 88. Dr. Grossman’s parents were immigrants from Hungary and Lithuania. He trained in the surgical service at the University of Rochester and joined the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps. He later worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. He became chief resident in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the Neurological Institute of New York. He later practiced in Texas and was working at Parkland Hospital on Nov. 22, 1963. Dr. Grossman founded the Neurological Institute at Methodist Hospital in Houston and the North American Clinical Trials Network for Spinal Cord Injury. He also chaired the neurosurgery department at Baylor College of Medicine. He never refused a patient who could not pay and never retired. Dr. Grossman enjoyed photography, sundials, and fly fishing. He is survived by his wife, Ellin, three children, and nine grandchildren.

Allan E. Jackman (aka “Dr. Ajax”), an attending physician at UCSF’s Medical and Arthritis Clinics for 40 years, died Oct. 20, 2021. He was 88. After medical school, he joined the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, serving for two years as a captain at the American Hospital in Ankara, Turkey. He later trained at Stanford and UCSF before joining a downtown San Francisco medical practice. He also was an attending and teacher at UCSF. In retirement, Dr. Jackman served on the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning’s Student Advisory Council and the board of the Marin Shakespeare Festival. He collected stamps. He is survived by two sons, two grandchildren, his partner, Evelyn, and his adopted family. 

1958
Paul Donald Harris of Morristown, New Jersey, died Feb. 15, 2022, at age 89. He attended Princeton as an undergrad. After medical school, he trained at the University of Rochester, Harvard, and Columbia. He was a cardiac surgeon at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City and Hackensack Medical Center in New Jersey. In retirement he devoted his time to baseball, his passion. He was part owner of the Norwich Navigators, a Yankee AA farm team. Dr. Harris is survived by his wife, Sarah, his children, and his stepchildren. 

Donald Hofreuter, a family practitioner who served the community of Wheeling, West Virginia, for three decades, died Nov. 21, 2021, at age 89. He trained at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh and the Kettering Institute at the University of Cincinnati and served in the U.S. Navy. In 1993, he became CEO of Wheeling Hospital. Dr. Hofreuter joined other physicians in 1985 to found Wheeling Health Right, which provides equal access to basic medical services regardless of ability to pay.

James Jewell, who taught surgery at the University of Zambia for 20 years until 2017, died Oct. 30, 2021. Early in his career, he practiced thoracic cardiovascular surgery in Pennsylvania at St. Joseph Hospital, Community General Hospital, and the Reading Hospital, where he was appointed chief of thoracic surgery. Beginning in 1991, he completed medical missions in Zambia and became the medical director at Luampa Mission Hospital in Kaoma, Zambia, through 1995. Dr. Jewell was elected “Missionary of the Year” by Christian Medical and Dental Associations, and he helped found the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons, a volunteer surgical training program. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor, seven children, 16 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. 

Marvin Henry Marx, who practiced urology in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and at North Penn Hospital for 45 years, died Feb. 14, 2022. He was 89. He was president of the North Penn Hospital staff and Montgomery County Medical Society. He and his wife, Carol, lived in a stone farmhouse in Worcester, Pennsylvania, where, in addition to their children, they raised cows, horses, dogs, chickens, ducks, and bees. Dr. Marx retired in 2000. He is survived by five children, seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Michael Porder, a Freudian psychoanalyst, died Oct. 15, 2021. He spoke to patients until shortly before his death. Dr. Porder joined the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1964 and taught psychiatry at Columbia through 1990 and at Albert Einstein College of Medicine through 2000. He was a member of the Center for Advanced Psychoanalytic Studies, edited the Psychoanalytic Quarterly, and mentored generations of psychoanalysts. He and his friends, Drs. Martin Willick and Sander Abend, wrote a treatise on the treatment of borderline patients. New York City was Dr. Porder’s home, but his spiritual center was a summer cabin on Spednic Lake in New Brunswick, Canada. He is survived by his wife, Peggy, seven children, 13 grandchildren, and a great-grandaughter. 

1959
Fred Huntley Allen Jr., who founded Carolina Neurological Clinic and made contributions to research in Alzheimer’s, died Feb. 3, 2022. He was 87. After training at the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, he graduated from the Neurological Institute of New York. He served in the U.S. Army as chief of outpatient neurology at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Dr. Allen conducted one of the original drug trials for Aricept and contributed to research at Duke University that identified the APOE gene as a risk for early-onset Alzheimer’s. He was a board member of the American Academy of Neurology, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the Southern Clinical Neurological Society. He was a deacon at Myers Park Baptist Church. He is survived by his wife, Gretchen, three children, and four grandchildren.

A. John “Bones” Elliot, an orthopedic surgeon and diagnostician, died Aug. 11, 2021. He was 88. Born in Trenton, New Jersey, to Italian immigrant parents, he was christened Amerigo John Eleuteri. He chose to change his last name during his medical residency because the attendants said “Elliot” over the loudspeaker. He completed a surgical internship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, a surgical residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York City, and an orthopedic residency at Yale University. In 1968, he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves as captain from a MASH unit. Dr. Elliot chose to practice in the Italian American community of Westerly, Rhode Island. He rose to chief of staff and surgery at Westerly Hospital and taught orthopedics at Yale University. In the early 1980s, he attended Cambridge College in the UK to learn arthroscopy. He later taught this new orthopedic procedure in China and, in 2020, was named a professor emeritus by the West China Medical University. He enjoyed hunting fowl, fly fishing, opera, dancing, tennis, and golf. He self-published a historical novel, “The Last Trumpet.” Dr. Elliot is survived by his wife, Judith Metzger Elliot, two daughters, and a stepson. 

Veronica “Ronnie” Stinnes Petersen, a pediatrician who taught at Harvard Medical School, died July 28, 2021. She was 88. Born in Germany, her family fled in 1938 and settled in Philadelphia. In retirement, she served on the boards of numerous Boston area educational and artistic organizations. At Haverford College, she endowed a professorship in peace studies. She enjoyed travel, music, and art. Dr. Petersen is survived by her husband, Robert, three children, and eight grandchildren. 

1960
Stephen Flagg, a plastic and hand surgeon who practiced in New Haven, Connecticut, for 35 years, died Jan. 8, 2022. He was 85. He trained at Roosevelt Hospital and New York University and worked at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. He taught at Yale from 1971 until his retirement in 2006. He helped found the New England Society of Hand Surgery, and in 2010 the New England Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons presented him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Flagg competed in international masters rowing events, winning numerous medals. He is survived by his wife, Edith, three children, a stepson, and seven grandchildren. 

Peter “Paul” Kronfeld, staff anesthesiologist at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, California, for 30 years, died Nov. 12, 2021. He was 88. Originally from Austria, Dr. Kronfeld came to the United States to attend Wesleyan University. In 1966, he was appointed chief of anesthesiologists at the U.S. Public Health Service in San Francisco’s Presidio. Dr. Kronfeld was an instrument-rated private pilot and flew his Cessna 182 all over the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. He survived an emergency landing after engine failure at 5,000 feet. He was an avid tennis player who loved music across many genres. Dr. Kronfeld is survived by two daughters and three grandchildren.

Charles Leach Jr., a cardiologist who co-founded Connecticut’s first cardiac rehabilitation program, died Aug. 10, 2021. He was 86. Dr. Leach met his future wife, Joan (Gross), at Bellevue Hospital. He served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. He later became director of cardiology at New Britain General Hospital and learned Polish to better connect with his patients. He briefly returned to private practice and taught at the University of Connecticut Medical School. He brought his first-year students to the New Britain Museum to find the connections among medicine, music, and art. In retirement, he dressed as a Colonial doctor at museum events for the Stanley Whitman House. He volunteered with the Farmington Land Trust and advocated for open space protection. His wife, Joan, a sister, four children, and seven grandchildren survive him.

Charles Rucker, a cardiothoracic surgeon in private practice for over 30 years in Phoenix, Arizona, died Nov. 25, 2021. He was 87. Between his residency at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City and his fellowship in thoracic surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian, Dr. Rucker served in the U.S. Army as a general surgeon at an Army hospital in Tehran, Iran. He served in numerous clinical leadership positions at St. Luke’s Hospital and chaired the cardiovascular & thoracic surgery department at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He was devoted to his Episcopal faith. Dr. Rucker is survived by his wife, Alexandra, three children, and seven grandchildren.

1961
John Robinson, a cardiologist and faculty member at Ohio State University for 40 years, died Jan. 7, 2022. He was 86. He received awards for teaching and patient care and was honored with a volunteer clinical faculty award for teaching electrocardiogram interpretation to medical students and house staff. He was a founding member of the volunteer medical advisors, Worthington Emergency squad, and a member of Worthington Presbyterian Church. Dr. Robinson was a private pilot and enjoyed studying history. He is survived by his wife, Carol, two children, and four grandchildren.

1963
Albert V. Assali, a urologist in private practice in Fremont, California, for nearly five decades, died Jan. 19, 2022. He was 84. Born in Les Cayes, Haiti, Dr. Assali trained at Bellevue Hospital and St. Luke’s Hospital in New York. He served as a lieutenant commander in the Navy at Balboa Naval Hospital for two years. Dr. Assali later opened his private practice in Fremont and joined the medical staff at Washington Hospital. He joined several mission trips to Haiti and Honduras. He loved gardening and classical music. He is survived by his wife, Cora, three daughters, seven grandchildren, a brother, and four sisters.

Paul Mosher, a psychoanalyst whose contributions included advances in patient confidentiality and the digitalization of psychoanalytic literature, died Sept. 14, 2021. He was 84. Through the American Psychoanalytic Association, he coordinated the funding and production of an amicus brief presented before the Supreme Court (Jaffee v. Redmond) on psychotherapist-patient confidentiality. He originated a consolidated full-text archive of the English language psychoanalytic literature and was a founding board member of Psychoanalytic Electronic Publishing. He trained in psychiatry and psychoanalysis at Columbia and practiced for over 50 years in New York City and later in Albany. He was self-taught in several computer languages. Dr. Mosher is survived by his wife, Paula, two children, and six grandchildren.

John Noble, an internist who devoted his life to treating vulnerable populations, died Oct. 3, 2021. He was 84. He trained at Massachusetts General Hospital. Before joining Boston University School of Medicine, he held clinical leadership positions at Middlesex County Hospital in Waltham and Lexington, Massachusetts, and North Carolina Memorial Hospital. He was chief of general internal medicine for 20 years at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center), where he initiated programs to improve outcomes for the homeless, frail elders, and people with smallpox, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. He helped establish specialized clinics for Haitian and Hispanic communities, young Black men, and homebound seniors. Dr. Noble helped create the Society of General Internal Medicine. He is survived by his wife, Ewa Kuligowska, MD, three sons, two stepsons, and their families. 

1964
Harris Berman, dean emeritus of Tufts University School of Medicine and an infectious disease consultant, primary care doctor, and founder and CEO of not-for-profit health plans, died Oct. 30, 2021. He was 83. Dr. Harris and his wife, Ruth, served together in the Peace Corps in India. There he became the chief medical officer responsible for the care of some 1,500 volunteers. In 1971, Dr. Berman co-founded one of the first staff-model health maintenance organizations—the Matthew Thornton Health Plan in New Hampshire—which provided care to 50,000 people by the mid-1980s. He later became CEO of Tufts Health Plan, which grew from 60,000 to 1 million members over his 17-year tenure. He held several administrative positions at Tufts University before stepping into the role of medical school dean at age 73. He is survived by his wife, Ruth Nemzoff, four children, and 11 grandchildren. 

1969
David Berke, a cardiologist who practiced in Fremont, California, for 30 years, died Dec. 27, 2021. He was 78. He completed internal medicine residencies at Columbia and UCSF and a cardiology fellowship at Stanford. He developed the cardiac program, including a catheterization lab, cardiac rehabilitation, and heart surgery, at Washington Hospital. Late in his career, he worked for Palo Alto Medical Foundation and in Castro Valley. He is survived by his wife, Terry, and her family, two daughters, and two granddaughters. His business card quoted Hippocrates: “Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.” 

Conrade Carl Jaffe, an internist with a long career as a professor and clinician at Yale University and Yale-New Haven Hospital, died Nov. 4, 2021, his 79th birthday. At Yale, he founded the Center for Advanced Instructional Media, which created award-winning interactive instructional software for teaching medical diagnostic imaging. He later served as a branch chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Imaging Program. He helped create the Cancer Imaging Archive, which has assisted thousands of scientists in their research. After 2008, Dr. Jaffe was professor of radiology at Boston University’s medical school. He is survived by his wife, Toini, two sons, and four grandchildren. 

Charles “Chuck” Jackson Jr., a psychiatrist in private practice in New York City and at Columbia University Health Service for 20 years, died Nov. 20, 2021, at age 78. He retired and moved to Northampton in 1989. Dr. Jackson loved sports and games such as bridge, poker, and chess. He is survived by his partner, Susanne, two children, and six grandchildren.

1972
Scott M. Hammer, professor of medicine at VP&S and professor of epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health, died Nov. 17, 2021. He also was emeritus chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at VP&S. A brilliant scientist and beloved clinician, Dr. Hammer was a giant in his field who framed and defined the current standard of HIV care both domestically and internationally. He changed countless lives. One of the first to treat HIV/AIDS patients in the United States, Dr. Hammer led the two most extensive national trials of antiretroviral therapy in the 1990s. In later years, he focused on HIV prevention, helping to lead vaccine trials and studies of monoclonal antibodies to prevent HIV. He was at the forefront of work to develop an HIV vaccine. Dr. Hammer graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College, trained at Columbia and Stanford, and was a chief resident in medicine at Columbia/NYP. He was recruited from Harvard Medical School in 1999 to lead the Division of Infectious Diseases at Columbia. Under his leadership through 2019, the division experienced unprecedented growth in research, training, and patient-centered clinical care. Dr. Hammer’s unique qualities of humility, determination, and generosity affected each person under his care and training. He inspired vast numbers of students, fellows, researchers, and clinicians to become the next generation of public health and infectious disease innovators. A visionary leader, he singularly led the recruitment of virologist David Ho, MD, and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center to Columbia, a transformative accomplishment just in time to address the pandemic at its epicenter. Dr. Hammer is survived by his wife, Susan Lorch, a brother, and other family members.

Alan Seplowitz, an internist and endocrinologist at Columbia for four decades, died Feb. 24, 2022. He was 74. He trained in internal medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian before serving in the U.S. Public Health Service for two years at the NIH. He was honored by VP&S in 2011 with an outstanding teaching award. He enjoyed tennis and playing Scrabble with his children and grandchildren. Dr. Seplowitz is survived by his wife, Betty, three children, and several grandchildren.

1974
Lewis “Lew” Evans II, a non-invasive cardiologist who practiced at the Guthrie Clinic in Sayre, Pennsylvania, for 25 years, died Jan. 31, 2022. He was 80. He completed a law degree at Cornell in 1964 and worked for several years at the firm of Sherman and Sterling in New York City before medical school. He completed a cardiac fellowship at Presbyterian Hospital. His passion was crew, which he coached at Cornell in 1964 and at Columbia during medical school. Dr. Evans is survived by his wife, Katherine.

1975
Frances Cohen, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and couples therapist with over 40 years of experience, died Oct. 1, 2021, of a heart attack. She was a prominent member of the New York Psychoanalytic Society and was honored for her exceptionally empathetic insight. She is survived by her husband, Stephen, a daughter, and a grandchild. 

1976
Cynthia McClennon Charity, a pediatrician in private practice for 26 years in Richmond, Virginia, died Oct. 13, 2021. She was 73. As the salutatorian of her high school class in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she was selected in the first wave of Black students to integrate Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. There she met her husband, OB/GYN Renard Adkins Charity Sr., then a student at nearby Meharry Medical College. Dr. Charity trained at the Medical College of Virginia and opened her practice in 1980. The couple later built medical offices together. After her retirement in 2006, Dr. Charity was happiest during creative pursuits such as sewing a garment, crocheting, or elaborate cross-stitching. She was a member of Gilfield Baptist Church in Charles City, Virginia. She is survived by her husband, Dr. Renard Charity Sr., three children, and five grandchildren.