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The cause was the complications of vascular disease, says his son, Arnold Rabson.
In addition to his scientific and administrative achievements, his colleagues say, what sets Dr. Rabson apart is his kindness, his empathy. , his generosity and his willingness to help anyone with a cancer diagnosis who was seeking advice or a referral to an oncologist.
"You could not be in his presence without a smile," said Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, which includes the National Cancer Institute
Dr. Rabson made his mark in as a cancer pathologist in the 1950s. "He has taught generations of pathologists to look into a microscope and say if what they were looking at was cancer," said Dr. Collins. "He created a field of excellence."
He also studied viruses and their role in the cause of cancer, an area of intense interest in the 1950s and 1960s. At that time, he discovered that herpes viruses – which, depending on the variety, can cause chicken pox or cold sores – can hide in the nerves after the disappearance of the initial infection. The chickenpox virus can appear decades later as shingles, a painful and painful rash. The type of cold sore can reappear periodically, causing recurrent wounds.
For most of his life, Dr. Rabson was a director, as director of what is now called the Division of Cancer Biology at the National Cancer Institute. Bethesda, Maryland, from 1975 to 1995, and then deputy director of the institute from 1995 until his retirement in 2015.
"He was the glue that brought together the National Cancer Institute" said Otis Brawley, medical and scientific director. As a director, said Douglas Lowy, the current deputy director of the Cancer Institute, Rabson had an unusually effective style
"With some supervisors, whenever you get together with them , is directly or indirectly an inquisition, "said Dr. Lowry. "With him, it was just the opposite: he brought together a group of laboratory leaders who were really first class, instead of having them walk a flock, if they came to him with a real need." he would see what he could do to try to "
On the sidelines, Dr. Rabson was helping cancer patients who needed counseling or referral for free.
From the late 1950s, it was learned that if you had cancer and needed help, you had to do was call Al Rabson. He took calls from whoever, whether they were members of Congress, celebrities or taxi drivers. He answered their questions, advised them and gave them references.
Even other cancer specialists began referring patients to Dr. Rabson
"People were calling me and saying," I know you're a doctor at the National Institutes. Do you know anyone who could help me? "Recalls Dr. Collins. "I would say," I know exactly the right person. "
In 2009, the Cancer Institute established a fellowship on behalf of Dr. Rabson.In 2012, Dr. Collins created the Alan S Rabson Award for Clinical Care in the Honor of Dr. 39, an employee of the National Institutes of Health who goes to great lengths to help members of the public.
In addition to his son, director of the New Jersey Child Health Institute and professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at Robert Wood's Johnson Medical School in New Jersey, Dr. Rabson is survived by a granddaughter and two great grandchildren
and raised in Jamaica, Queens.
After high school, Dr. Rabson went to the University of Rochester, where he did research in biology, and then applied to medical schools. a – the Long Island College of Medicine, now SUNY Downstate – have rejected it because they had already filled their quotas of Jews, said Arnold Rabson. The Long Island College had just started and still had open slots
There, it became a goal to become a pathologist. He also ended up marrying one, Ruth Kirschstein. Both, said Dr. Lowy, "were the original couple of power".
It was a difficult time for women scientists, especially Jewish women, facing both sexist prejudices and anti-Semitism. As Dr. Rabson traveled, establishing her career, "she was still the trailing wife," their son said.
But she was determined to pursue her goals. She had applied in about fifty medical schools before finding one that would take her to Tulane University in New Orleans. And she was determined to pursue a career as a medical scientist. She always managed to find positions when she followed Dr. Rabson, their son said, and "whatever she does, she did better than anyone before her"
In 1955 Dr. Rabson arrived in as resident in pathological anatomy. , where he did research in pathology. Dr. Kirschstein arrived as a resident in clinical pathology and developed a safety test for the polio vaccine
Dr. Kirschstein also rose through the ranks of administrators at the National Institutes of Health. In 1974, she became the first woman to lead one of the institutes, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Dr. Rabson and Dr. Kirschstein lived in a modest house on the campus of the institutes and rarely left the center. Dr. Rabson stayed there after Dr. Kirschstein died of cancer in 2009 and only left three years earlier, when, handicapped by arthritis and vascular disease, he moved into a home. help center near his son
to become a doctor and, more specifically, a doctor who does research, "said Arnold Rabson. Science, he said, "was what we talked about at the dinner table."
"We were reading genetics textbooks at night," he continues. "I was looking through a microscope when I was 14 or 15 years old."
And, of course, there were these phone calls and emails from people who were looking for help.
"Every night he was talking on the phone"
In one of their many conversations, Dr. Collins said, "That's why I went to medicine to help people."
NYTIMES
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