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Milton Elkin

View larger version (158K): [in this window] [in a new window] [as a PowerPoint slide]   Milton Elkin, 1916-2005

After the war years, Milt returned to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for training in internal medicine, physiology, and radiology. In 1954, only 3 years after completing his residency in radiology, Milt was recruited to join the founding faculty of a new medical school: The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He was appointed to serve as the first chairman of Einstein's Department of Radiology and as Director of Radiology at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center (now Jacobi Medical Center), a new hospital established by the City of New York to coincide with the opening of the medical school.

Milt's ambition rapidly propelled the department, and his academic stature, to preeminence. By 1957 the residency program in diagnostic radiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was fully accredited and training four residents per year. Although he was a uroradiologist by training, Milt understood the need to build neuroradiology into a power-house to support the growing strength of the medical school in the neurosciences. Along with Columbia University, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine was funded by the National Institutes of Health to train neuroradiologists in an effort to improve the support of this growing subspecialty. Einstein was also awarded a research training program grant supported by the Public Health Service with Milt as the principal investigator. Eleven residents subsequently participated in that program, spending a full year in research in addition to 3 years in radiology. This program allowed Milt and his fellows to concentrate on the urinary tract, and their primary focus became study of the renal vasculature as well as the physiology of renal and ureteral obstructions. The fruits of this research eventually led Milt to write a classic two-volume textbook, Radiology of the Urinary System, and to publish more than 100 scientific articles in the peer-review literature.

Dr. Elkin was somehow able to carve out time to serve radiology in leadership roles at the national level. He served as a trustee of the American Board of Radiology and as a member of the Residency Review Committee in Radiology. Milt was also a Chancellor of the American College of Radiology, President of the Radiological Society of North America, and a founding member of the Society of Uroradiology; in recognition of his selfless service to radiology, he was awarded a gold medal by each of these three prestigious organizations.

In 1986, Milt stepped down from his 32 years as chair of radiology at Einstein. However, he continued to work, teach, and serve our specialty for many years thereafter as Distinguished Professor and later as Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Radiology.

While deeply enmeshed in his academic career, Milt still found time for outside interests. In midlife he took up and mastered sailing. He had a passion for gardening and took great pride in his roses. Other hobbies included abstract painting and woodworking in his basement shop. But his love of radiology remained paramount. Near the end of his life, as Alzheimer's claimed more and more of his mind, his daughter Karen visited him in the hospital and showed him some X-rays. "He came alive," she recalls. "His face became expressive. His eyes lit up. He was engaged. The look, feel, and sound of the X-ray films brought back wonderful memories. He sat in a wheelchair and held the films up to the light in the ceiling for 45 minutes. His love of radiology had enabled him to triumph over the ravages of Alzheimer's."

A strong sense of family no doubt provided the support system that allowed Milt to excel in all that he undertook. He was totally devoted to his wife, Gloria (King). Their marriage lasted 53 years until her death from breast cancer. The devotion, love, and respect of his three children, Phil, Laura, and Karen, were abundantly evident in the tributes each paid to their dad at his funeral. Milt would have been proud.

I was honored to be associated with Milt, and I have learned much from him about leadership. After I became chair of radiology at Einstein in 1991, I used to spend every Friday at Jacobi, the city hospital. Milt would show me the terrific genitourinary cases he was accumulating from colleagues around the country to be shown on the oral board exam, and we would discuss the findings and many other things; then, we would share the sandwich he had brought from home for lunch. These were priceless times.

Milt Elkin was a very special man. His funeral was held in the Chapel in the Woods at Temple Kol Ami in White Plains, NY. The rabbi, near the end of the service, opined that we are all guilty of frittering away many of our days on earth. She asked that we pause for a moment to enjoy being alive. It was a perfect fall day. The walls of windows in the little chapel looked out on trees cloaked in yellow leaves. We sat for several minutes listening to the rustle of the leaves and marveling at the beauty. In this poignant moment we were reminded of a life lived to the fullest.

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This Article Figures Only Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Amis, E. S. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Amis, E. S., Jr. Social Bookmarking                      What's this?