Irving Schulman chaired the committee that designed the first licensing exam for pediatric hematologist-oncologists in the 1970s. Today there are about 2,000 licensed practitioners in the discipline. The number on Schulman's license: 2.
Schulman, 87, chair emeritus of pediatrics at the School of Medicine, died June 11 of complications of pneumonia. He arrived on campus in 1972 to a small department of pediatrics only loosely affiliated with the Children's Hospital at Stanford. He spent the next 19 years building a nationally recognized and respected center for academic and clinical pediatrics, and worked extensively with Lucile Packard to construct a modern new hospital. He served as Packard Children's first chief of staff when the facility opened in 1991.
Born in New York, he earned his bachelor's and MD from New York University. From 1946 to 1948, he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. After residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York, he was a faculty member at Cornell University Medical Center and Northwestern University Medical School. He distinguished himself as an expert in pediatric blood diseases. He was among the first to describe hemophilia arising from deficiency of blood clotting Factor IX in children, and one of the first to utilize a now-routine steroid treatment for acute leukemia in children. In 1961 he joined the University of Illinois as head of pediatrics, remaining there until he joined Stanford. He won various awards, including the 1960 E. Mead Johnson Award for outstanding scientific achievement in pediatrics.
Some of his best efforts, however, were not strictly medical. Former residents noted on a School of Medicine online guestbook that Schulman always pushed them to be their best. And his son, John, recalled his rapport with patients, telling the School of Medicine: "One-, 2- and 3-year-olds could be in the worst medical condition, and somehow Dad would get them to smile and laugh."
In addition to John, he is survived by his wife of more than 59 years, Naomi; a daughter, Margaret Miller; two grandchildren; and a sister.
