In Memoriam

Extract

Gilbert S. Greenwald 1927–2004

Gilbert S. Greenwald, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas Medical Center, died August 26 at the age of 77 years. Dr. Greenwald retired from the University of Kansas Medical Center in 1996 after an illustrious career as an internationally recognized reproductive biologist and Distinguished Professor who had also served as chairman of the Department of Physiology at the Medical Center for 16 years (1977–1993). He studied rodent reproductive biology for his doctorate in zoology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1954. While at Berkeley, he met Pola, the woman who would share his life. After graduation, they moved cross country to Baltimore where he became a postdoctoral student at the Carnegie Institute of Embryology of Johns Hopkins University. His research focus remained on the reproductive system. In 1956, he moved to his first faculty appointment in the Department of Anatomy at the University of Washington in Seattle. Five years later, he joined the department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Kansas Medical Center where he held an Endowed Chair in Research in Human Reproduction. In 1964, he was promoted to Professor. Thus, within 10 years after receiving his doctorate, he had achieved the highest academic rank, an accomplishment attained by only very few. Approximately 10 years later, he was recognized for his scientific contributions and was named University Distinguished Professor, a title held by only a few truly outstanding scholars. He had an encyclopedic mind. He knew line, page, citation, and author of every publication on the ovary of which there were several thousand. In the mid 1960s, a small group of professors working on the reproductive system were attracted to the University of Kansas Medical Center largely because of Dr. Greenwald’s leadership, outstanding track record, and the support provided by the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. This small group of professors formed the basis for subsequent recruitment of numerous faculty with interests in the reproductive system to the Medical Center. Today those professors (∼29 in total) are integral parts of Center for Reproductive Sciences, the Institute for Maternal Fetal Biology, the Mental Retardation Research Center, and several academic departments, both basic and clinical.