The Harvey Goldman Master Teacher Award was established by the Council of the USCAP to recognize his long-standing, contributions to teaching and his mentoring abilities at the USCAP. The first Awardee will be recognized in 2011 at our 100th Annual Centennial meeting of the USCAP in San Antonio.
Harvey Goldman, M.D., Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Vice Chairman of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess medical Center, and an international leader in gastrointestinal (GI) pathology, died on April 6, 2009 from complications of a hematologic disorder.
Harvey was born May 25, 1932 in Philadelphia, PA. He received an A.B. degree in mathematics from Temple University in 1953 and his M.D. from temple University School of Medicine in 1957. After a rotating internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he did his residency in pathology at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. In 1964, following a two-year assignment as a pathologist at the U.S. Naval Hospital in great Lakes, Michigan, he returned to Boston, Beth Israel Hospital and HMS, and over the subsequent 45 years developed a stellar career as an educator, clinical investigator, administrator, and mentor.
During his career, Harvey had several major hospital administrative positions. In 1989, he left Beth Israel Hospital to become Chairman of Pathology at both New England Deaconess Hospital and new England Baptist Hospital in Boston, positions he held until 1996 when Beth Israel and Deaconess Hospitals merged to become Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). At the newly-formed BIDMC, he served as Senior Pathologist and Vice Chairman of the Department of Pathology until his death. Concurrently during this era, his recognized expertise in GI pathology resulted in busy and productive appointments as a consultant at several other Boston institutions including Children's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Despite the demands of his hospital administrative duties, Harvey's love of teaching and medical education led him to successfully undertake many teaching and leadership roles at HMS, at Beth Israel Hospital/BIDMC and at the national and international level. At HMS, he not only taught in the basic pathology course and the GI pathophysiology block but also in the cardiovascular, renal, and respiratory pathophysiology courses. In addition, for 14 years he was the Pathology Coordinator for a highly popular elective pathology course for third- and fourth-year medical students, served as Chairman of the Harvard-Massachusetts Institute of Technology Division of Health Sciences and Technology Human Pathology Course from 1971 until 1988, and supervised the elective pathology clerkship at Beth Israel Hospital for 18 years. At the HMS administrative level, he completed terms as Chairman of the Preclinical Promotion Board, the Curriculum Committee, the Pathology Education Committee, and the Faculty Teaching Activity Committee. Success in these endeavors resulted in his being chosen to serve a five-year term as Faculty Dean for Medical Education (1988-1993). In this capacity, he played an important role in implementing the conversion of the preclinical curriculum from a lecture-based to a small group, tutorial-based, interactive format (the HMS New Pathway). He was one of the most popular educators at HMS, receiving multiple teaching awards from the medical students between 1970 and 2006, and culminating in his being awarded the Special Faculty Prize for Sustained Excellence in Teaching in 2007. he was also a dedicated and beloved teacher of scores of pathology residents and fellows. At BIDMC, Harvey was the first staff member to receive the Resident Teaching Award in Anatomic Pathology in 2001; he was also selected that year for the S. Robert Stone Honorary Teaching Award, a yearly prize given to an outstanding clinician-educator at the medical center.
Harvey's interests in teaching also extended to the postgraduate level. He will perhaps be best remembered by those outside of his department for his many contributions to the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP). For most of his professional career, Harvey was a tireless advocate for this society: he served on virtually all of its committees, was Chairman of the Education Committee, a member of the governing Council, led courses (his gastrointestinal mucosal biopsy course ran for over 10 years, by popular demand), and was its President (1999-2000). At the time of his death, he was enthusiastically planning his role as one of three BIDMC faculty in a new Short Course on a comparison of clinical and pathological findings in pediatric and adult patients with a variety of inflammatory/immunologic conditions such as celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease. At a time when he could have coasted on 40-plus years of achievements, he remained committed to education in our specialty. His many contributions to USCAP were recognized by his being given the F.K. Mostofi Distinguished Service Award (1995) and the Distinguished Pathologist Award (2006).
His abilities as an educator were also recognized by his being invited to serve as a visiting professor, lecturer, or course director at numerous institutions and professional society meetings throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe as well as forays to Israel, Argentina, and the Far East. He was a founding member of the Gastrointestinal Pathology Society (now the Rodger Haggitt Gastrointestinal Pathology Society) and served as its President (1982-1983), the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation, and the International Academy of Pathology (North American Vice-President).
Harvey was one of the pioneers in advancing the study and interpretation of gastrointestinal mucosal biopsy specimens and correlating the findings with clinical and imaging data. His studies, often in collaboration with other pathologists and clinicians in other specialties (especially gastroenterologists, surgeons, and radiologists) resulted in major contributions in many areas including reflux esophagitis, allergic gastrointestinal disorders, inflammatory bowel disease and Barrett's esophagus (including the elucidation of histologic criteria for identifying dysplasia in both inflammatory bowel disease and Barrett's esophagus). In addition to publishing numerous original articles on these subjects, Harvey found time to co-edit two editions of a major textbook on GI pathology and to publish a monograph on GI mucosal biopsies. His two-part paper on the usefulness of GI mucosal biopsies, published in 1982 in Human pathology, remains a landmark review that is still widely referenced.
There was a personal side to Harvey that was equally, or even more, important than his public achievements. No matter how busy he was, Harvey was devoted to his family and always found time to share their lives. As his son Palko said, "He really made a point to get out of work at 5:30 and participate in our Little League games and our homework. But at the same time, he would have to get back to work, and I have this image of him working at the dining room table until the early hours of the morning. Lots of people sacrifice their careers for their family or the opposite. I really thing my father excelled at both and sacrificed neither."
In 1991, Harvey had a heart attack and immediately quit smoking. At his family's suggestion, he used his former cigarette money to buy two season tickets for Red Sox games. For the rest of his life, he combined his love of baseball with his love of reading: he brought a book to every Red Sox game, and would read between innings and even during protracted innings, a fact observed by his fellow season ticket holders. His son Palko recalls that, "One night a non-season ticket holder a few seats down remarked, 'Look at the guy reading a book. How can you read a book at a baseball game?' Someone responded, 'He watches a thousand innings a year.'" Ironically, Harvey died on what was scheduled to be opening day of the 2009 Red Sox season.
About 20 years ago, Harvey and his wife, Nora, discovered a tiny resort on the Adriatic coast of Italy. They formed a warm and lasting bond with the Italian family who owned the "pensione" at which they stayed. Among all the foreign destinations he knew, this became the resort of choice for relaxation, and he and Nora returned for a two-week holiday every year, becoming the adopted US component of an extended Italian family.
Harvey Goldman was a giant in the field of pathology and a giant of a person and he will be sorely missed. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Eleonora (Nora) Galvanek, also a pathologist; daughter Vierka; son Sasha; son Palko and wife Lida Nabati; and grandson Jasper.
Dr. Goldman's biosketch courtesy of Drs. Stuart Schnitt and Donald Antonioli and printed with permission from the American Journal of Surgical Pathology (2009).
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