Note: This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues or clients, contact us at www.rsna.org/rsnarights.
Communications n
In Memoriam
In Memoriam
Sidney Wallace, MD 1929–2013
Dr Sidney Wallace, professor emeritus of the Department of Radiology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, died at his home in Houston, Tex, on May 25, 2013, after a long battle with renal cell carcinoma. His cancer was diagnosed in the mid 1980’s, and at that time he really did not expect to live but a few years. His kidney was preoperatively embolized using an approach developed at Anderson, and he believed this impacted his survival by creating an endogenous immunologic response against the malignancy. It is unfortunate that this treatment approach has yet to be validated, but it did take 18 years for the cancer to metastasize to the pancreas. This metastasis was resected affording him another decade of life with his family. It is an incredible story for an incredible man. He was a professor of radiology: chairman of the Department of Diagnostic Ra-
diology and division head of Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Tex, where he spent nearly his entire career in radiology. He retired in 1996, after 30 years of distinguished service. A modern day renaissance man, he was a physician’s physician, scholar, author, teacher, researcher, inventor, businessman, painter, sculptor, cartoonist, singer, and of course an outstanding husband, father, and grandfather. My father was born on February 26, 1929. He began his medical career in 1950 at Temple University Medical School (Philadelphia, Pa), graduating in 1954. It was predetermined, at that time, as the son of a kosher butcher that he would of course become a surgeon. After 2 years as a surgeon in the U.S. Army stationed in Japan and Korea in the mid to late 1950’s, the butcher boy, as he called himself, ultimately “saw the darkness of diagnostic radiology” and joined the radiology residency program at Jefferson Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. He often recounted the time his mother visited him in the Radiology Department and saw him with a long heavy lead apron, over-sized lead gloves and red goggles, and she gasped and said, “Oh my god, after all that time and all that money you’re back in the butcher shop.” In 1963, he uprooted his family and spent a year at the University of Lund in Sweden, where he obtained specialized training in angiography. He returned to Philadelphia but subsequently made the pilgrimage with Dr Gerald Dodd to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In 1968, he along with Drs Gerald Dodd, Jr, and Cesare Gianturco established a research laboratory that later became the John S. Dunn Sr. Research Foundation Center for Radiologic Sciences. My father would often say that “Cesare was a veritable genius and that
Radiology: Volume 271: Number 1—April 2014 n radiology.rsna.org
he was most fortunate to be his student and his co-inventor.” The Wallace-Gianturco collaboration was incredibly productive in the 1970s and 80s, inventing a treasure trove of devices, many of which were firsts in concept and first in man. The very first device, in the early 1970, was the wooly coil (tail) that later evolved into the Gianturco-AndersonWallace stainless steel embolization coil, still in use today. In addition to the coil, Gianturco and Wallace formulated the Bird’s Nest vena cava filter, self-expanding Z-stent and stent graft, balloon-assisted coronary stent, atrial septal defect occluder, and the patent ductus occluder. He broadened his research interests in 1988 when he established a pharmaceutical development laboratory to investigate new polymer-drug conjugates, microcapsulated drug delivery systems, and radiolabeled ligands for positron emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 26 patented devices and pharmaceutical agents. After his retirement, he remained active in research and founded a biomedical company to commercialize one of the polymer-drug conjugates formulated in the lab. This technology was subsequently licensed to a pharmaceutical company and is currently in phase III clinical trials. He was a prolific author and an incredible teacher, publishing extensively on lymphangiography, intra-arterial infusion, embolization, and chemoembolization therapy in addition to publishing on preclinical/translational activities from his work in the lab. He authored and co-authored 652 scientific articles and chapters. To him, publications were not enough. He felt very strongly about sharing his knowledge with anyone willing to listen. He spoke at venues across the globe and taught countless residents, 313
IN MEMORIAM
fellows, and colleagues to educate the masses on radiology and in particular interventional radiology. His trademark lecturing technique was to find one poor soul in the audience and make them the sacrificial lamb to stress the key points in his presentation. It was quite effective tool and one always wanted to get a good night sleep before coming to his lectures. In 1990, Dr Wallace and Anders Lunderquist created a “Hands-on Practical Course in Interventional Radiology,” which has provided more than 60 courses worldwide to more than 400 students. As a result of his life’s work in radiology, he was awarded gold medals from
314
the Society of Interventional Radiology, the American College of Radiology, the Gilbert Fletcher Society, the Brazilian Congress of Radiology, and the Japanese Society of Angiography and Interventional Radiology. This is in addition to the Antoine-Beclere Award from the French Radiologic Society. My father also happened to be a talented artist. He progressed from a cartoonist, drawing sketches of his medical school faculty, to being an accomplished painter and sculptor. His art is usually representational, bordering on impressionistic, but occasionally he would break out with something abstract. He was a songwriter of jingles and lullabies and had a wonderful singing voice. Dur-
ing his many travels to the Orient, he would always sing for his colleagues and friends. The song was usually Old Man River. Above and beyond his numerous accomplishments and talents, he was a tremendous husband, father, and grandfather, affectionately called “Poppy Sid.” He is survived by his wife, Marsha, who was his staunchest supporter and as he would say “the inspiration for it all”; son, Stewart, and daughter-in-law, Dianne; daughter, Andrea, and son-in-law, Johnathan; son, Michael, and daughter-in-law, Valerie; and grandchildren, Lucas, Benjamin, Jeremy, Erin, and Sydney. —Michael J. Wallace, MD, FSIR
radiology.rsna.org n Radiology: Volume 271: Number 1—April 2014
Communications n
In Memoriam
In Memoriam
Sidney Wallace, MD 1929–2013
Dr Sidney Wallace, professor emeritus of the Department of Radiology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, died at his home in Houston, Tex, on May 25, 2013, after a long battle with renal cell carcinoma. His cancer was diagnosed in the mid 1980’s, and at that time he really did not expect to live but a few years. His kidney was preoperatively embolized using an approach developed at Anderson, and he believed this impacted his survival by creating an endogenous immunologic response against the malignancy. It is unfortunate that this treatment approach has yet to be validated, but it did take 18 years for the cancer to metastasize to the pancreas. This metastasis was resected affording him another decade of life with his family. It is an incredible story for an incredible man. He was a professor of radiology: chairman of the Department of Diagnostic Ra-
diology and division head of Diagnostic Imaging at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Tex, where he spent nearly his entire career in radiology. He retired in 1996, after 30 years of distinguished service. A modern day renaissance man, he was a physician’s physician, scholar, author, teacher, researcher, inventor, businessman, painter, sculptor, cartoonist, singer, and of course an outstanding husband, father, and grandfather. My father was born on February 26, 1929. He began his medical career in 1950 at Temple University Medical School (Philadelphia, Pa), graduating in 1954. It was predetermined, at that time, as the son of a kosher butcher that he would of course become a surgeon. After 2 years as a surgeon in the U.S. Army stationed in Japan and Korea in the mid to late 1950’s, the butcher boy, as he called himself, ultimately “saw the darkness of diagnostic radiology” and joined the radiology residency program at Jefferson Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia, Pa. He often recounted the time his mother visited him in the Radiology Department and saw him with a long heavy lead apron, over-sized lead gloves and red goggles, and she gasped and said, “Oh my god, after all that time and all that money you’re back in the butcher shop.” In 1963, he uprooted his family and spent a year at the University of Lund in Sweden, where he obtained specialized training in angiography. He returned to Philadelphia but subsequently made the pilgrimage with Dr Gerald Dodd to the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In 1968, he along with Drs Gerald Dodd, Jr, and Cesare Gianturco established a research laboratory that later became the John S. Dunn Sr. Research Foundation Center for Radiologic Sciences. My father would often say that “Cesare was a veritable genius and that
Radiology: Volume 271: Number 1—April 2014 n radiology.rsna.org
he was most fortunate to be his student and his co-inventor.” The Wallace-Gianturco collaboration was incredibly productive in the 1970s and 80s, inventing a treasure trove of devices, many of which were firsts in concept and first in man. The very first device, in the early 1970, was the wooly coil (tail) that later evolved into the Gianturco-AndersonWallace stainless steel embolization coil, still in use today. In addition to the coil, Gianturco and Wallace formulated the Bird’s Nest vena cava filter, self-expanding Z-stent and stent graft, balloon-assisted coronary stent, atrial septal defect occluder, and the patent ductus occluder. He broadened his research interests in 1988 when he established a pharmaceutical development laboratory to investigate new polymer-drug conjugates, microcapsulated drug delivery systems, and radiolabeled ligands for positron emission tomography and single photon emission computed tomography. He is the inventor or co-inventor of 26 patented devices and pharmaceutical agents. After his retirement, he remained active in research and founded a biomedical company to commercialize one of the polymer-drug conjugates formulated in the lab. This technology was subsequently licensed to a pharmaceutical company and is currently in phase III clinical trials. He was a prolific author and an incredible teacher, publishing extensively on lymphangiography, intra-arterial infusion, embolization, and chemoembolization therapy in addition to publishing on preclinical/translational activities from his work in the lab. He authored and co-authored 652 scientific articles and chapters. To him, publications were not enough. He felt very strongly about sharing his knowledge with anyone willing to listen. He spoke at venues across the globe and taught countless residents, 313
IN MEMORIAM
fellows, and colleagues to educate the masses on radiology and in particular interventional radiology. His trademark lecturing technique was to find one poor soul in the audience and make them the sacrificial lamb to stress the key points in his presentation. It was quite effective tool and one always wanted to get a good night sleep before coming to his lectures. In 1990, Dr Wallace and Anders Lunderquist created a “Hands-on Practical Course in Interventional Radiology,” which has provided more than 60 courses worldwide to more than 400 students. As a result of his life’s work in radiology, he was awarded gold medals from
314
the Society of Interventional Radiology, the American College of Radiology, the Gilbert Fletcher Society, the Brazilian Congress of Radiology, and the Japanese Society of Angiography and Interventional Radiology. This is in addition to the Antoine-Beclere Award from the French Radiologic Society. My father also happened to be a talented artist. He progressed from a cartoonist, drawing sketches of his medical school faculty, to being an accomplished painter and sculptor. His art is usually representational, bordering on impressionistic, but occasionally he would break out with something abstract. He was a songwriter of jingles and lullabies and had a wonderful singing voice. Dur-
ing his many travels to the Orient, he would always sing for his colleagues and friends. The song was usually Old Man River. Above and beyond his numerous accomplishments and talents, he was a tremendous husband, father, and grandfather, affectionately called “Poppy Sid.” He is survived by his wife, Marsha, who was his staunchest supporter and as he would say “the inspiration for it all”; son, Stewart, and daughter-in-law, Dianne; daughter, Andrea, and son-in-law, Johnathan; son, Michael, and daughter-in-law, Valerie; and grandchildren, Lucas, Benjamin, Jeremy, Erin, and Sydney. —Michael J. Wallace, MD, FSIR
radiology.rsna.org n Radiology: Volume 271: Number 1—April 2014
