Deputy Director's Corner

Remembering Marty

FOR OVER 30 YEARS, Dr. Martin Abeloff, Marty as many of us knew him, was my colleague, and, more importantly, in that context, in the most  uniquely seamless of manners, my friend. He has been, and will always continue to be, simply, immensely consequential to my personal and professional being.

Marty was, day in and day out, my teacher, as he was for so many others. And the teacher led by example, for his humanity rang through in everything he did, from the largest collective enterprises to the most intimate of interactions. What he was, who he was, his intellect, his integrity, his philosophies, his humor, his compassion, and his queries, always showed through. He resonated, “this is who I am,” and invited the question, “Who are you?” This incredible mode of communication gave us all an example of how to talk to each other—parent to child, spouse to spouse, friend to friend, doctor to patient, institution to institution. The love from his family, friends, patients, and colleagues was inevitable because of his genuine and incredible personal core. I like to wonder, what if, for our world, more  leaders in every sphere harbored even a percentage of this core.

Marty knew he was important at Johns Hopkins and throughout the cancer world, but he also seemed to say that’s not what’s important. His humor was full of the capacity to laugh at himself, laugh with others, and  occasionally at others, especially if you earned it! He had a wonderful suspicion of false trappings. I think he could be the same with kings, ambassadors, Nobel laureates, Charley Rose on PBS, or the car park  attendant and reduce everything back to that core of humanity that punctuated his every interaction.

Marty taught us all patience. For me, one feature of this is growing with me every year, and that is to stop and listen—and then when I next talk,  maybe the content will reflect more education. If he had not helped start me on that course, I would never have been able to help him in a leadership capacity when his cruel illness presented the need to do so.

Marty’s quest for useful knowledge was unending, and that was never more apparent than when he exhorted his colleagues to examine their  conclusions and the true meaning and impact of their data. One of the last smiles I was able to extract from him was when I teased him about his interactions with the superb team managing his clinical care. He must have driven them to distraction at times questioning the data, and its real  robustness, underlying each major decision they placed before him for his treatment plan. I said, “Look at you. Here you are on the wrong end of a disease you fought against your whole life, and you are still examining us, still pushing to know what the data really mean for the practical care of the patient, even if the patient is you!” And, why not. As a clinical scientist, this was always most important to him.

Finally, Marty understood so very well the constitution of life – that there are few ultimate truths, that we are all a convergence of good and bad, that it is all gray–not black and white. He used this understanding to be a consummate blender and synthesizer—a practicing humanitarian who  pursued an educated, informed, and humane course leading to a just pronouncement So, what can we now do to give us some resolution for a loss that seems so unjust, so utterly sudden and untimely, a loss leaving us, for a moment, so alone? Let Marty’s spoken, and sometimes unspoken challenge to all of us to do better—to reach harder for excellence—resonate even louder. Let’s take out our frustration positively by pulling together, over and over, to bring the day closer that we do not have to say goodbyes prematurely to the ones we love and who love us.

Stephen Baylin

Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor and Deputy Director
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins

Date: Winter, 2008

Promise and Progress Magazine: Letters from the late Director, Martin D. Abeloff, M.D. (1942-2007)

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