Stanley L. Robbins, 1915-2003
Abstract
University of Chicago Stanley L. Robbins, M.D., the master teacher of pathology, died on October 7, 2003 at the age of 88. Born in Portland, Maine in 1915, Dr. Robbins graduated at the top of his class from Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. He went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts Medical School, delivering the valedictory address at both schools on graduation. After training at Boston City Hospital, Dr. Robbins joined Boston University School of Medicine. He became Director of Boston University’s Mallory Institute of Pathology and Chairman of its Department of Pathology in 1965, a position he held until 1980. On his retirement from those positions, he accepted a post as Senior Pathologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He continued to teach medical school students and pathologists-in-training for many years to follow. In 1957, the first edition of Robbins’ Textbook of Pathology was published and marked a turning point in pathology teaching. In a largely negative preview of the book, two distinguished pathologists of that time informed the publisher that the book did not present enough descriptive morphology and was too heavily clinical. Differing sharply from "professional pathologists," a student