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obituary |
ABSTRACT
In Memoriam: Irving Rothchild, Ph.D., M.D., 1913–2006
Dr. Rothchild received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. (1939) from the University of Wisconsin under the tutelage of R.K. Meyer, one of the legendary leaders in the development of reproductive endocrinology. He then spent two years in the Department of Chemistry at Michael Reese Hospital before moving to the National Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, where he worked for five years with R.M. Fraps and others on the ovarian physiology of the hen. He published a series of classic papers on oviposition, which established the role of progesterone as a direct stimulus for ovulation, and performed the earliest successful hypophysectomy in this species. This area of research remained close to his heart. Indeed, in his final publication in 2003, he covered the ontogeny of ovarian/ovulatory physiology and endocrinology from lower vertebrates through the mammalian species, with great emphasis on the hen [1]. These studies in the hen with Fraps et al. predate the searching capabilities of PubMed for those interested in the original papers.
Following his research with R.M. Fraps, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he only stayed for a short time before joining the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of Physiology at the Ohio State University School of Medicine, where he also attended Medical School, receiving his M.D. in 1954. In 1956, he accepted a position as Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and was promoted to Professor by 1966. The Department changed its name to the Department of Reproductive Biology, and Dr. Rothchild started what would become a long career of scholarly achievement at Case Western Reserve. In 1977–1978, he was the Boerhave Visiting Professor at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, for which he learned to speak Dutch to better converse with the natives.
He directed the training program in Reproductive Biology and attracted talented students and fellows and established a solid research program geared towards understanding corpus luteum function and regulation. He published clinical papers on reproductive endocrinology, but the real excitement was the ability to develop different animal models to study in vivo how and what affects progesterone production and thus allows pregnancy to progress [2]. He published an extensive series of articles defining the corpus luteum-pituitary-placental relationship and discovered that a combination of hormones, rather than a single hormone, regulates corpus luteum survival and function and that this "luteotropic complex" varies with different stages of pregnancy.
In addition to his experimental studies, Dr. Rothchild's other major contribution has been a series of superb review articles, which have refined our knowledge of the corpus luteum throughout mammalian species. His 1965 review in Vitamins and Hormones [3] has been named a "Citation Classic" and his 1981 review [4] from his Laurentian Hormone presentation has led a great number of laboratories to investigate the intracrine role of progesterone in the survival and steroidogenic capacity of the corpus luteum.
His creativity in the design of experiments enabled him to discover basic physiologic information which would have gone unnoticed in more mundane protocols. His papers incorporated elaborate protocols with a great knowledge of the literature and scientific intuition, which was the basis of his creativity. His command of and exactness for the English language were not usually encountered in scientific writing and made each article difficult, but also a pleasure to read. Dr. Rothchild was a dedicated, committed, and innovative scientist who worked endlessly at career development. He has also trained solid scientists who followed in his footsteps and maintained this area of Reproductive Sciences research alive and thriving.
As a Professor Emeritus since 1982, he continued to keep up with the scientific literature and stimulated colleagues with discussions and suggestion for experiments to be done. He published 10 papers after his retirement date with his last paper published on the web site of the Society for the Study of Reproduction in 2006 (http://www.ssr.org/Induction.html).
Another aspect of Dr. Rothchild's life was his love of poetry. Each New Year, without exception, he sent poems to his friends and colleagues and beautifully described his life after retirement. His last poem brought tears to many eyes.
IRV'S LAST POEM(January 2006)
I've said farewell to science, laced
With Nature's quirks and charms,
To chocolate, cheese and almond paste,
Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Brahms...
I've said goodbye to movies, too,
Biking trips and walks,
To beer, wine, gin -a fond adieu
And to swimming, poker, talks...
To many friends I've said good-bye,
Farewells to many places;
Au revoirs replaced by the need to cry
For the loss of dear embraces
And now, dear friends and kin, a last
Good-bye to all I know.
'Till now life's been a super blast!
And now it's time to go...
He, who has touched the life of many colleagues, former students, and post-doctoral fellows, will remain forever alive.
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