News Releases
Pediatrician Irving Schulman, First Chief Of Staff For Packard Children’s Hospital, Dies At 87
For Release: June 17, 2009
STANFORD, Calif. -- Irving Schulman, MD, chair emeritus of pediatrics at the Stanford University School of Medicine and a leader in the founding of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, died June 11 of complications of pneumonia at his home on the Stanford campus. He was 87.Schulman was recruited to Stanford from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1972. When he arrived, he found a small Department of Pediatrics that was only weakly associated with the Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Over the next 19 years, Schulman built the department into a nationally respected hub for academic and clinical pediatrics, training many health-care leaders. In addition, he worked tirelessly with Lucile Packard and the local community to oversee the construction of a modern new hospital, and served as Packard Children’s first chief of staff when the hospital opened in 1991.
“He was the chair of pediatrics at a very critical time,” said David Stevenson, MD, vice dean of the School of Medicine and one of many Stanford leaders whom Schulman hired as a young physician. “He set the stage, through the choices he made, for the tremendous growth and change that occurred with the building of Packard Children’s. He helped create a unique children’s hospital that has distinguished itself ever since.”
Schulman was born Feb. 17, 1922, in New York City. He earned a BA in 1942 and an MD in 1945, both from New York University. He interned at Queens Hospital and completed his residency in pediatrics at Bellevue hospital in New York City in 1949. Bellevue was also where he met a young lab technician named Naomi Zion, who became his wife in 1950.
Early in Schulman’s career, as a faculty member at Cornell University Medical Center and Northwestern University Medical School, he distinguished himself as an expert in pediatric blood diseases. He conducted pioneering studies on idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, a common pediatric bleeding disorder associated with low platelet counts. He was one of the first to describe hemophilia arising from deficiency of blood clotting Factor IX in children. He was also among the first physicians to consider (now-routine) steroid treatment for acute leukemia in children. Schulman’s research was recognized in 1960 with the E. Mead Johnson Award, a top honor for outstanding scientific achievement in pediatrics. In 1961, he became professor and head of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Illinois, where he served until moving to Stanford. In 1965, Schulman was one of five U.S. physicians who comprised the first United States-Soviet Union Health Exchange Delegation, visiting several cities in the Soviet Union, including Moscow. In 1968, he received the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Children from Georgetown University.
At Stanford, Schulman’s compassion, quick wit and encyclopedic knowledge of pediatrics soon made him a respected teacher and administrator. “He religiously met with the residents once a week, and they presented cases to him,” said Bert Glader, MD, professor of pediatrics in hematology-oncology, whom Schulman hired in 1977. “It was considered one of the highlights of our residency training program.”
Schulman’s commitment to medical education led him to chair the committee that designed the first licensing exam for pediatric hematologist-oncologists in the mid-1970s. There are now about 2,000 licensed practitioners in the discipline; the number on his license is No. 2. He also prided himself on being among the first, three decades ago, to allow women medical residents to job-share a residency position so they could have time for their own families.
Soon after arriving at Stanford, Schulman recognized that the Children’s Hospital at Stanford, built as a convalescent facility for tuberculosis, would not meet modern health-care needs. Together with Lucile Packard, he began planning a new hospital, traveling the country to look at hospital designs and seeking input from community groups throughout the Bay Area. “His greatest legacy is this children’s hospital on the Stanford campus which is both a superb family-centered place for taking care of sick children and part of an incredible academic arena for advancing children’s health,” said Harvey Cohen, MD, the former chair of pediatrics who succeeded Schulman in 1993. “He was really a stickler for doing the best for children.”
Amidst the intense activity of building the department and Packard Children’s, Schulman remained a pediatrician first. “He absolutely loved babies and children,” said Ann Arvin, MD, another Schulman hire, now vice provost and dean of research at Stanford University. He made rounds on the wards nearly every day, Arvin said, taking a personal interest in even the tiniest infants. And Schulman’s clever, dry sense of humor was extended not just to the adults in his life, but also to his patients, recalled his son, John. “One-, 2- and 3-year-olds could be in the worst medical condition, and somehow Dad would get them to smile and laugh.”
Schulman is survived by his wife of 59 years, Naomi Schulman, of Stanford; daughter Margaret Miller of Mountain View, Calif.; son John Schulman of Sherman Oaks, Calif.; sister Estelle Siegal of Woodbury, N.Y.; and grandchildren Jennifer and Joshua Miller of Mountain View. For those wishing to make a charitable donation in his memory, his wife suggests giving to the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health at www.supportLPCH.org or (650) 497-8141.
A celebration of life will be held in Schulman’s honor at noon Aug. 7 at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center, 326 Galvez St., Stanford.
About Stanford University School of Medicine
The Stanford University School of Medicine consistently ranks among the nation’s top 10 medical schools, integrating research, medical education, patient care and community service. For more news about the school, please visit http://mednews.stanford.edu. The medical school is part of Stanford Medicine, which includes Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. For information about all three, please visit http://stanfordmedicine.org/about/news.html.
About Lucile Packard Children's Hospital
Ranked as one of the best pediatric hospitals in the nation by U.S.News & World Report, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford is a 272-bed hospital devoted to the care of children and expectant mothers. Providing pediatric and obstetric medical and surgical services and associated with the Stanford University School of Medicine, Packard Children's offers patients locally, regionally and nationally the full range of health-care programs and services — from preventive and routine care to the diagnosis and treatment of serious illness and injury. For more information, visit http://www.lpch.org.
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