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Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
www.elsevier.com/locate/semvascsurg
Robert B. Rutherford, MD, FACS, FRCS (1931 2013) A Tribute to the “Editor” Vascular Surgeon General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, and later, Vascular Surgery. Dr. Rutherford’s career began as a military surgeon at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; and in 1965, his first academic surgery appointment was at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where his research was in the areas of shock, trauma, and circulatory physiology. In 1970, now an Associate Professor of Surgery, Dr. Rutherford returned to the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado, and the Rocky Mountains that he loved, to pursue the advancement of vascular surgery, resident education, and patient care.
Vascular Surgery lost one of its pioneers on November 22, 2013, when Dr. Robert B. Rutherford, 82, passed away at his home in Boerne, Texas, surrounded by his wife of 58 years, Kay, and their family. Dr. Rutherford (Bob) was the face of Vascular Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he completed his General Surgery training in 1963 and returned in 1970 to create the newly emerging specialty of Vascular Surgery. By 1975, Dr. Rutherford established the first noninvasive vascular laboratory between St Louis and San Francisco and, in 1977, he was officially appointed the first Chief of Vascular Surgery at CU, a position he held until 1996, when he was awarded a Professor Emeritus appointment. Today, the University of Colorado’s Vascular Surgery training program is named in his honor. Dr. Rutherford was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and spent his youth in Vancouver and Toronto. During World War II he spent 4 years in Australia. He left Edmonton for New York in 1947, completing high school at McBurney School in Manhattan before attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he received his BA and MD degrees in 1952 and 1956, respectively. His surgical education began in 1956 as an intern at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and was completed in Denver at the University of Colorado in 1963, including a 1-year Fulbright fellowship in Sweden. This robust surgical training allowed him to hold certification in
Dr. Rutherford published more than 400 articles and book chapters and 6 textbooks, including as Chief Editor of Rutherford’s Vascular Surgery, the authoritative textbook of Vascular Surgery, now in its 7th edition. In 1988, he began a new quarterly journal, Seminars in Vascular Surgery, with the goal of bringing the latest clinical information to vascular surgeons and residents in topic-oriented issues, and remained its Editor until 2012. Dr. Rutherford was co-editor of the Journal of Vascular Surgery from 1996 through 2003, and established this publication as the scientific standard for Vascular Surgery, including the development of uniform reporting practices in vascular surgery and disease-specific severity scoring as a basis for comparing treatment outcomes. In 2005, he cochaired the first Transatlantic Consensus Conference on Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease (TASC). Dr. Rutherford was a moving force in achieving recognition for Vascular Surgery as an independent specialty. Dr. Rutherford served as a director of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) for 6 years and was chairman of the ABS Vascular Surgery Committee. In 1996, at the time of his delivery of the Lister lecture in Glasgow, Scotland, he was awarded an honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow. He was a member of 20 professional societies, including the prestigious American Surgical Association, and was President of 4 vascular surgery societies, most notably the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, now known as the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), and was the recipient of the first SVS Lifetime Achievement Award. At the annual meeting of the SVS in 2006, he was awarded the second annual Julius H. Jacobson II, MD Award for Physician Excellence, given by the Vascular Disease Foundation.
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As a physician, educator, researcher, and scholar, Dr. Rutherford’s life as a surgeon is a testament to Vascular Surgery—the surgical specialty he cultivated and helped grow as an Editor. I am humbled to assume the Editorship of his Journal and will strive to fulfill Dr. Rutherford’s vision for Seminars in Vascular Surgery.
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Editor Dennis F. Bandyk, MD 0895-7967/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.semvascsurg.2014.01.005
M I N A R S I N
V
A S C U L A R
SU
R G E R Y
26 (2013) 55–56
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
www.elsevier.com/locate/semvascsurg
Robert B. Rutherford, MD, FACS, FRCS (1931 2013) A Tribute to the “Editor” Vascular Surgeon General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, and later, Vascular Surgery. Dr. Rutherford’s career began as a military surgeon at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; and in 1965, his first academic surgery appointment was at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where his research was in the areas of shock, trauma, and circulatory physiology. In 1970, now an Associate Professor of Surgery, Dr. Rutherford returned to the Department of Surgery at the University of Colorado, and the Rocky Mountains that he loved, to pursue the advancement of vascular surgery, resident education, and patient care.
Vascular Surgery lost one of its pioneers on November 22, 2013, when Dr. Robert B. Rutherford, 82, passed away at his home in Boerne, Texas, surrounded by his wife of 58 years, Kay, and their family. Dr. Rutherford (Bob) was the face of Vascular Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where he completed his General Surgery training in 1963 and returned in 1970 to create the newly emerging specialty of Vascular Surgery. By 1975, Dr. Rutherford established the first noninvasive vascular laboratory between St Louis and San Francisco and, in 1977, he was officially appointed the first Chief of Vascular Surgery at CU, a position he held until 1996, when he was awarded a Professor Emeritus appointment. Today, the University of Colorado’s Vascular Surgery training program is named in his honor. Dr. Rutherford was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and spent his youth in Vancouver and Toronto. During World War II he spent 4 years in Australia. He left Edmonton for New York in 1947, completing high school at McBurney School in Manhattan before attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he received his BA and MD degrees in 1952 and 1956, respectively. His surgical education began in 1956 as an intern at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and was completed in Denver at the University of Colorado in 1963, including a 1-year Fulbright fellowship in Sweden. This robust surgical training allowed him to hold certification in
Dr. Rutherford published more than 400 articles and book chapters and 6 textbooks, including as Chief Editor of Rutherford’s Vascular Surgery, the authoritative textbook of Vascular Surgery, now in its 7th edition. In 1988, he began a new quarterly journal, Seminars in Vascular Surgery, with the goal of bringing the latest clinical information to vascular surgeons and residents in topic-oriented issues, and remained its Editor until 2012. Dr. Rutherford was co-editor of the Journal of Vascular Surgery from 1996 through 2003, and established this publication as the scientific standard for Vascular Surgery, including the development of uniform reporting practices in vascular surgery and disease-specific severity scoring as a basis for comparing treatment outcomes. In 2005, he cochaired the first Transatlantic Consensus Conference on Peripheral Arterial Occlusive Disease (TASC). Dr. Rutherford was a moving force in achieving recognition for Vascular Surgery as an independent specialty. Dr. Rutherford served as a director of the American Board of Surgery (ABS) for 6 years and was chairman of the ABS Vascular Surgery Committee. In 1996, at the time of his delivery of the Lister lecture in Glasgow, Scotland, he was awarded an honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow. He was a member of 20 professional societies, including the prestigious American Surgical Association, and was President of 4 vascular surgery societies, most notably the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, now known as the Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), and was the recipient of the first SVS Lifetime Achievement Award. At the annual meeting of the SVS in 2006, he was awarded the second annual Julius H. Jacobson II, MD Award for Physician Excellence, given by the Vascular Disease Foundation.
56
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A S C U L A R
As a physician, educator, researcher, and scholar, Dr. Rutherford’s life as a surgeon is a testament to Vascular Surgery—the surgical specialty he cultivated and helped grow as an Editor. I am humbled to assume the Editorship of his Journal and will strive to fulfill Dr. Rutherford’s vision for Seminars in Vascular Surgery.
SU
R G E R Y
26 (2013) 55–56
Editor Dennis F. Bandyk, MD 0895-7967/$ - see front matter & 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1053/j.semvascsurg.2014.01.005
