Memories of Irving London, M.D.
Irving London, M.D., Einstein’s founding chair of medicine, died on May 23, 2018, just two months shy of his centennial birthday. I asked Dr. London’s close friend and colleague, Irwin Arias, M.D., to share his memories of Dr. London at the beginning of the history of Einstein. Dr. Arias was also among our founding faculty, leading the Liver Center and gastrointestinal division for many years. He went on to hold significant positions at Tufts Medical School and the NIH, and remains professor emeritus at Einstein. Edward Burns, M.D.
Irving London, M.D.
On March 21, 1955, the New York Times announced the appointment of three department heads at the newly created Albert Einstein College of Medicine: Irving London (medicine), Milton Rosenbaum (psychiatry) and Alfred Gilman (pharmacology). Each brought luster to the new medical school, which, during my time as an Einstein faculty member (1957-1982), provided the most exciting and challenging professional experience of my life.
Irving London was the last survivor of this triumvirate when he died last month. I am honored to have been one his first Fellows, then a colleague and, throughout our lives, a friend. After my move to Boston in 1982, we began almost weekly conversations, visits, and periodic dinners. In 2011, I spent several days at his summer home in Woods Hole recording his oral history.
At the age of 36, Irving became chair of a new department of medicine in a new Albert Einstein College of Medicine. With his colleagues, he played a major role in creating an outstanding medical school and a unique department that bridged the newly developing field of biochemistry with medicine. He led in the effort to understand basic mechanisms of disease and use this information to provide better treatment of patients.
Irving was a hematologist by training and had spent several years in the biochemistry department at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, studying heme metabolism before coming to Einstein. I was the eighth or ninth member of the department, which also included Saul Korey, M.D. (later the first chair of neurology), and many other outstanding faculty. We all met for lunch almost every day.
It is important to realize that truly everything was being done for the first time—student and faculty recruitment, curriculum, research planning, grants, programs, clerkships and all of the issues related to creating an outstanding patient care and clinical training service at the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center (Jacobi and Van Etten Hospitals).
Excitement and challenge were never-ending and, most importantly, were widely shared. Led by Irving and others, we were all on the frontier of medical sciences and fully participated in creating an outstanding institution. These halcyon years would not have been possible without Irving’s dedication to bridging science and medicine and creating high standards in all activities.
Even as the Forchheimer building was being built and duckboards preceded sidewalks, a community of students, fellows and faculty was formed, facilities emerged and, within a relatively few years, Albert Einstein College of Medicine had established itself as a top-flight institution. Admission was highly sought by students, fellows, physicians, and graduate students seeking clinical and/or research training.
Irving shared duties and academic opportunities with all of us. He encouraged, advised and supported us. Only in later years, did I learn more about his remarkable personal history and fully appreciate that his major lifelong and avant-garde interest was to bridge science and medicine.
He successfully accomplished this goal in three major institutions: as founding chair of medicine at Einstein; as a founder of the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine); and as founding director of the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology program. Along the way, he built many personal bridges with all who were fortunate to share his enthusiasm and leadership as well as lifelong mentorship, charm, wit, and personal interest.
Posted on: Thursday, June 07, 2018