Faculty
Frederic P. Herter, MD, the Auchincloss Professor Emeritus of Surgery, died Nov. 7, 2015. He joined Columbia as an intern in 1944 and rose through the ranks during his 40 years of active service. He was acting chairman of the Department of Surgery for two years, director of surgery at the Francis Delafield Hospital, a consultant to Harlem and Goldwater Memorial hospitals, and a consultant at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. After his Columbia tenure, he served as president of the American University of Beirut for eight years and later was an AUB trustee emeritus. The son of a Massachusetts governor who later served as U.S. Secretary of State, Dr. Herter grew up in a powerful family, but he was praised at a memorial service for being an egalitarian and humanitarian who believed in service. Though he was the product of a life of privilege, one speaker said, “You wouldn’t know it without being told.”
Other Faculty Deaths
Michael Bernstein, MD, professor emeritus of medicine, died Feb. 21, 2016.
Ira Snow Jones, MD, clinical professor emeritus of ophthalmology, died Feb. 9, 2016.
Donald Meyers, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry, died Jan. 13, 2016.
Mary H. Samuels, MD, former member of the pediatrics faculty, died May 31, 2015.
Fred Sander, MD, adjunct associate clinical professor of psychiatry, died March 25, 2015.
Carolyn Denning Scaglione, MD, former director of the cystic fibrosis and pediatric pulmonary disease centers at Babies Hospital, died Jan. 10, 2016.
Anneliese L. Sitarz, MD, professor emeritus of clinical pediatrics, died Oct. 3, 2015. See more in Alumni In Memoriam, Class of 1954.
Robert L. Spitzer, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, died Dec. 20, 2015.
Eleanor Townsend, MD, retired member of the psychiatry faculty, died Dec. 2, 2015. See more in Alumni In Memoriam, Class of 1961.