AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE 49:701 (2006)

In Memoriam

In Memoriam:

Ruth Lilis

I write to note the passing of a dear professional

colleague and friend who contributedmuch to this journal, to

her trainees, to colleagues at Mount Sinai, and to her family.

Ruth Lilis was an astute and thoughtful occupational

physician with considerable first-hand experience regarding

a wide range of workplace exposures. She joined the Mount

Sinai family in 1972, as I was finishing my own medical

training as a member of the first 4-year class at the medical

school. As a young physician interested in occupational

medicine, Ruth was unfailingly generous with her time, and

an appropriately stern taskmaster; she always expected the

best of her colleagues.

Numerous trainees benefited from her tutelage, and her

colleagues appreciated her experiences, which she readily

shared. She cared passionately about taking proper care of

patients, and never shied away from controversy.Awoman of

strong convictions, she sought to do right, and she valued the

life she and her husband Michael built together in America

after coming from a more totalitarian setting.

Ruth was devoted to her family, her husband, daughter,

and grandchildren. She reveled in the role of Grandmother.

Theworld of occupationalmedicine has lost awonderful

clinician, researcher, and teacher, and her family and friends

the companionship and insights of a caring and wise woman.

Arthur L. Frank, MD, PhD*

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health

Drexel University School of Public Health

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

� 2006Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Department of Environmental and Occupational Health,Drexel University School of PublicHealth, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

*Correspondence to: Arthur L. Frank, Professor of Public Health, Chair, Department ofEnvironmental and Occupational Health, Drexel University School of Public Health,Mail Stop660, 245 N. 15th Street, Philadelphia, PA19102-1192. E-mail: alf13@drexel.edu

DOI10.1002/ajim.20365. Published online inWiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com)