Clinical Center News
Spring 2019

Saul Rosen, former Acting Director of CC, passes at 90

Dr. Thomas Lewis and Dr. Saul Rosen
In the early 90s, Rosen and Dr. Thomas Lewis, chief of the, then, Clinical Center Information Systems Department sent out a holiday card. The card, available via the NIH Stetten Museum collection, shows Rosen with a white coat covered in patches from different programs and divisions at the hospital (maintenance, nutrition, pediatric surgery, etc.). Behind him is a painting of Verdi, an Italian opera composer. Rosen once said "music, especially opera, is my muse." Inside the card, read "From us at the Clinical Center to all of you, younger and older, best wishes for a happy and healthy Holiday Season. May you hit all the right notes."
 

In February, former Acting Director of the Clinical Center Dr. Saul Rosen died at the age of 90. For more than three decades, Rosen served the NIH. Under former CC Director John Decker, Rosen was named Deputy Director (1984) and then Acting Director from (1990-1994). In 1984, the NIH Record (page 10) quoted Rosen saying, "My job will be to make sure the Clinical Center continues to function as a high-quality hospital, which is easy because it is already very good indeed."

The CC News covered his retirement in 1994. Rosen said, "The CC stands for more than the Clinical Center to me. It also represents competency and collegiality. And I hope that's what we have been." In his interview, Rosen astutely identified scientific processes and technological advancements that would continue well beyond his time: MRI and PET scanning, a strong protection of human subjects in investigative research and revolutions in molecular and cell biology.

In addition, Rosen said, "The thing that knocks my socks off from here to Prince George's County is the new work in gene therapy, work that was pioneered here at the Clinical Center [in 1990]. Dr. Francis Collins…will be heavily involved in pushing this technology forward."

Rosen began his path forward in NIH research when he arrived as a clinical associate in 1958 at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Later, he conducted research as a senior investigator at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

A Bostonian, Rosen graduated Harvard College at the age of 18, cum laude, then pursued a Ph.D. in chemistry at Northwestern University. He then returned to Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1956. View NIH Oral History, a testimony with Rosen.

In 1984, the NIH Record (page 10) quoted Rosen saying "My job will be to make sure the Clinical Center continues to function as a high-quality hospital, which is easy because it is already very good indeed."

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