A Tribute to Paul Calabresi: The Man and the Matterhorn

Autor: Bruce A. Chabner
Rok vydání: 2003
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Oncologist. 8:602-603
ISSN: 1549-490X
1083-7159
Popis: As my colleague, Greg Curt [1], so aptly describes, Paul Calabresi touched, or rather embraced the lives of a great number of people in the cancer field. At his memorial service in Providence on November 1, 2003, patients, friends, and family all attested to the same experience. A relationship with Paul was never trivial. Perhaps more than any other physician/scientist, he became the inspiration, guide, and counselor for countless friends and oncologists. He will be terribly missed by all of us. My personal acquaintance with Paul began at Yale. There, in Joe Bertino’s laboratory, I inherited a superb technician, Barbara Morrison. Barbara had trained with Paul and his colleagues in earlier days in the Pharmacology Department. At that time Paul was one of very few academic investigators interested in the pharmacology of anticancer drugs; anti-metabolites in particular. It happened that our common commitments to biochemical pharmacology led to an immediate friendship, collaborations and chapters, and to my career-long admiration for Paul as a leader in the broader cancer community. In subsequent days at the National Cancer Institute, Paul was my loyal friend and counselor, as he was for so many of the scientists and leaders in this country. There was so much to admire about this man: his integrity, his intelligence, his optimism, and his ability to see solutions in the midst of crisis. What inspired him? In listening to the eulogies from friends, family, and patients, one could sense themes in his life. He came from a family of extraordinary stature in Italy. As an immigrant child who came to this country in 1939, he strongly perceived the need to establish the Calabresi name as a pre-eminent family in the United States. In Paul’s family, this was done by scholarly contribution in the fields of medicine and law. His younger brother Guido, the youngest full professor at the Yale Law School and subsequently its distinguished dean, regarded Paul as the master of the Calabresi Ship as it steered its way through Yale, Brown, and Washington. Paul led the way for the continuous stream of talented Calabresis, a remarkable family that has become renowned in law and medicine. Paul admired greatness and permanence. He remained incredibly loyal and committed to maintaining his family’s presence in Italy, establishing strong ties to hospitals, physicians, patients, and biotechnology companies there. He always helped; his commitments were never trivial. In addition to his family and his work, his passion extended to nature. He was an accomplished skier and sailor. He loved the mountains and the sea, and shared this passion with his children and his friends. My fondest memories of Paul are those from a recent trip to Stresa, Italy, where my wife and I joined his dear wife Cele, and his sons Steven and Peter, for a conference. At Paul’s insistence, we all agreed to travel three hours into Switzerland to view the Matterhorn. It was a long ride on winding mountain roads
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz: