Frank Epstein; kidney doctor inspired colleagues, students; at 84
Dr. Frank Epstein, a kidney specialist who mentored a generation of Harvard Medical School residents and fellows, always kept his stethoscope tucked into his shirt to spare his patients from a chill.
He reveled in the discoveries and accomplishments of others, and his generosity with ideas inspired those in the competitive world of medical research.
"My debt to him is beyond measure," said Dr. Ananth Karumanchi of Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Epstein encouraged Karumanchi's acclaimed new research into a potentially life-threatening complication of pregnancy known as preeclampsia.
"My career was really jump-started by him," Karumanchi said. "I knew he was a legend in his own right, yet I could call him anytime. He was more like a friend to me."
Dr. Epstein died Nov. 5 in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, a month after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was 84.
He spent more than three decades at Beth Israel Deaconess and was former chairman of the hospital's Department of Medicine.
"In every way, Frank exemplified the ideal physician, investigator, teacher, and scholar," said Dr. Mark Zeidel, current chairman of the hospital's department of medicine. "Although we were blessed to have him among us for decades and well into his 80s, his loss is too sudden, and we will sorely miss his wit, clinical acumen, and wisdom."
Born in Brooklyn, Dr. Epstein was a gifted student who entered Brooklyn College at age 16 and graduated summa cum laude in 1944. His father was a school principal; his mother a teacher.
He was 18 when his father died of asbestos-related cancer. The loss spurred his interest in medicine, relatives said.
He graduated from Yale University School of Medicine in 1947 and completed his internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
During his medical career, Dr. Epstein also completed a fellowship in cardiology at Boston University Medical School and a tour of duty in the US Army, first at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and later at the First General Dispensary at Fort Richardson, Alaska.
He met his wife, Sherrie (Spivack), on a train ride from Washington to New York.
"The good conversation lasted for 57 years," she said. "He was fun, he was sweet, and he was smart. What else could you want in a man?"
After the Army, Dr. Epstein returned to Yale and became chief of the Division of Metabolism and the Department of Medicine.
In 1972, he came to Boston to head the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory and the Harvard Medical Unit of Boston City Hospital.
In 1973, Beth Israel Hospital named him chairman and physician in chief of the Department of Medicine.
"He was the master clinician and the brightest mind that I ever encountered in medicine," said Dr. Richard Shannon, a Pennsylvania cardiologist who conducted his first research studies under Dr. Epstein.
"I remember rounding with him," Shannon said, "and his classic prescription of 'chicken soup; half strength' " for a patient suffering from low sodium.
Dr. Epstein brought humor and warmth to intensive care units, colleagues said. He liked to whistle and was often heard singing in the halls in his fine tenor. Some of his favorites were "Younger Than Springtime" and "Some Enchanted Evening." One student recalled walking into Beth Israel one day to find Dr. Epstein leading his trainees in song to the radio.
Daughter Ann Epstein of Brookline said her father's favorite words were "terrific, fantastic, and marvelous."
As children, she and her three siblings waited for him to come home from the hospital each evening for dinner. "He always lit up when we greeted him, and for my whole life, I felt that excitement each time I walked in the door to see him," she said.
The family spent each summer at the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine, where Dr. Epstein conducted research for 40 years and was lab president for a decade. Amid saltwater tanks, he studied the spiny dogfish's ability to pump excess salt from its blood.
Dr. Epstein authored more than 400 papers, reviews, and book chapters and was an editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Karumanchi said his mentor "was like a medical encyclopedia."
"I didn't have to go to the library. He knew every paper published in this field," he said.
Dr. Epstein shared his clinical experience with Karumanchi as the younger doctor applied newer technology to unraveling the protein puzzles behind preeclampsia. "After we started getting some data, he was so excited," Karumanchi said. "He literally would come up to my office every other day, and we would sit and discuss the next step, the next experiment."
At the lab in Maine this past summer, Dr. Patricio Silva, whose friendship with Dr. Epstein spanned almost four decades, said he was astounded to see Dr. Epstein jogging near his cabin one morning.
"He was his usual, happy self, a creative person, always thinking about things," said Silva.
Dr. Epstein was "the most significant influence in my career," he said. "I was in awe of him. . . . He had the capacity to cut to the chase effortlessly, but he never showed off."
Dr. Epstein received numerous national and international honors over the years, including the John P. Peters Award of the American Society of Nephrology, the David Hume Award of the National Kidney Foundation, and the Bywaters Award from the International Society of Nephrology. He received honorary degrees from Oxford University and the Medical Academy of Gdansk, Poland.
In addition to his wife and daughter Ann, Dr. Epstein leaves another daughter, Sara of Winchester; two sons, Mark of New York and Jonathan of Radnor, Pa.; and nine grandchildren.
Services have been held. Burial was at Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon. 