Autobiography of a Loner Tackling the Nail.

loner, and this is probably due to the fact that I had to start earning a living early. An enormous change took place in my life when one of my favorite professors, Charles Grupper, persuaded me to attend the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) meetings held in 1966 in Miami. I discovered that sharing a room with him was like being 2 students at college. He introduced me to the greatest dermatologists of this country, and many of them became dear lifelong friends. I arrived 2 weeks before the congress and visited NYU, where I met a fantastic person, Perry Robins, who by chance spoke French. He became my best friend and still is and I am proud to have been chosen as the godfather of Laurence, his son. Every year I used to attend to the Academy in Chicago with Charles Grupper, where it was held for many years. We used to have dinner together with the best dermatologists: Marion Sulzberger and his wife Bobby, Rudi Baer and Louise, and Herman Beerman and his wife. Some years ago, at Larry Parish’s request I presented some photos of these wonderful people. At that time, 4 other dermatologists also fascinated me. The first one, Nardo Zaias, invented Nail Science. Without Nardo, this field would probably still be in its infancy, because it is a tantalizing problem, not only in Dear colleagues, dear friends, To make a long story short, I’m going to try to condense more than 65 years of my professional career into 45 minutes. However, I would first like to thank Larry Parish and the Committee of the History of Dermatology Society for having hit the nail on the head by inviting me to speak to you because, as the saying goes, you are never better served than by yourself. I never had the privilege of meeting Samuel Zakon, despite my interest in the history of dermatology (I wrote 2 chapters in the Pantheon of Dermatology edited by Löser, Plewig, and Burgdorf [1] ), and I regret not having been able to take advantage of Zakon’s “quiet, pithy words as well as the tolerant twinkle in his eyes,” as Walter Lobitz said when he was in my position in 1985. Let me tell you just a little about myself now. My teenage years were blown to smithereens during the Second World War and I was saved by studying. Dermatology was a serendipitous discovery for me. It’s difficult to believe that I was the last resident student of Arnault Tzanck in the renowned Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, which at that time was the Holy Temple of Dermatology. This first training opened many doors for me, and I was able to work with some of the most famous dermatologists in my country. However, I have always been a Published online: December 17, 2016