At medical meetings, he delivered rapid-fire, painstakingly researched, often witheringly personal lectures that questioned diagnostic classifications or arguments for creation of a new disease category. On the other hand, he responded with delight and intrigue when challenged by a colleague with a novel idea, so long as it was well conceived.
In marathon work days, “dermatology was his life,” recalled Dr. Resnik.
Still, he enjoyed travel, the company of good friends, and exotic cuisine. He relished Indian food so spicy the sweat broke out on his bald head.
“What I think I'll always remember most was his sense of humor. He had this incredible laugh,” said Dr. Cockerell, who said Dr. Ackerman's influence on his career was “massive.”
In a 2003 “Luminaire” living mentor tribute to Dr. Ackerman in the Archives of Dermatology, he described himself as “Dogmatic and unyielding at scanning magnification, reasonable and accommodating at high power. Imperious and autocratic from afar, humane and empathic close up.”
He was, said Dr. Mark A. Hurt, “a genius,” as conversant on ancient history as on the intricate clues hidden within a biopsy slide. “He was an utter joy to be around. He made you want to care about skin and everything else in life,” said Dr. Hurt, a dermatopathologist in practice in Maryland Heights, Mo., who reviewed his recent textbook on follicular neoplasms.
Well versed in, and mindful of, his Jewish heritage, he accepted an honorary degree from the University of Giessen (Germany) in 1998 in memory of all of the Jewish boys who would have been his contemporaries in dermatology, but whose dreams ended in the Holocaust.
Always a student of history and art, he recently established a professorship at Harvard University in culture and medicine. To honor his subspecialty, he donated a dermatopathology reading room at Massachusetts General Hospital, complete with his collection of antique microscopes and a 10-headed microscope for collaborative study.
He also loved New York City's Central Park, where he often sat in contemplation. A bench will be placed there in his memory with the inscription, “He loved this lake.”
Dr. Ackerman's survivors include his brother, James, of Pittsboro, N.C., his sister Susan Zwick of Summit N.J., nieces Kathryn Kislak and Amy Zwick, and nephews Marc Ackerman and Andrew Zwick. Contributions may be made to www.TruthfulTestimony.org
DR. ALBERT BERNARD ACKERMAN
His Many Contributions Remembered
DR. LEBOIT is professor of clinical pathology and dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and codirector of the UCSF Dermatopathology Service. He trained with Dr. Ackerman.
Dr. Ackerman changed the face of dermatopathology, and had a profound influence on both dermatology and pathology.
His landmark textbook set a standard for medical publishing, and for the establishment of a logical method for diagnosis.
Suffice it to say, no one since has attempted a textbook of inflammatory skin disease. Its elegant prose, layout, superb photography, use of “leader lines” to point out features in photomicrographs, and bulleted main points were practically unknown prior to this opus.
A year later, in founding of the International Society of Dermatopathology and its official publication (serving as its first editor-in-chief), Dr. Ackerman set a new standard for integrating peer-reviewed papers, editorial commentaries, and works bringing together art, literature, and medicine.
As a physician-investigator, Dr. Ackerman set forth the basic criteria still in current use for recognition of the earliest stages of mycosis fungoides, Kaposi's sarcoma, and melanoma in situ. He played a key role in the clarification of the histopathologic features of erythema multiforme and Grover's disease.
He coined the term “granulomatous slack skin” to describe a rare condition first reported by others, and was the first to grasp that it was a lymphoma. He first described rheumatoid neutrophilic dermatitis and interstitial granulomatous dermatitis with arthritis.
He held many strong views: that dysplastic nevi were just another type of nevus; that melanoma was a single disease process, and that it should be called melanoma in situ from the outset no matter what its site; and that dermatofibroma was a fibrosing inflammatory process, not a neoplasm.
He believed that the link between sunlight and melanoma had been “oversold,” and that sentinel lymph node biopsy was valueless in managing patients with melanoma.
There is hardly an area in dermatology or in dermatopathology that one can study without finding an “Ackermanian” hypothesis. I expect that proving or disproving Dr. Ackerman's writings will keep a generation of investigators busy.