Obituary: Roger Alan Brumback, MD (1948-2013).

Summarizing someone’s life work and achievements can be relatively straightforward, even for an individual as prolific as Roger Brumback. Placing their accomplishments into perspective and highlighting what is most meaningful among a lifetime of notable achievements are much more challenging tasks. Making sense of the terrible tragedy of 2 productive lives cut short, on the other hand, is impossible, particularly while sorting through one’s own grief. Yet in a few paragraphs we must attempt to do all of these things for our friend and colleague Roger Alan Brumback, who, along with his beloved wife Mary, was tragically killed in Omaha, Nebraska. Roger Brumback (Figure 1) grew up in Monroeville, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Immediately after graduation from Monroeville’s Gateway High School in 1965, he enrolled in Pennsylvania State University. Through a combination of advance placement credits, a heavy course load, and year-round attendance, Roger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in premedical studies in only 2 years. It was at Penn State that Roger met Mary, his future wife. The University’s 1967 yearbook depicts a barely recognizable beardless young man with scalp hair, an appearance that was not destined to persist very long. In 1967, Roger entered the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. His was the very first class of the newly opened medical school, and at age 19, Roger was by far the youngest member of this inaugural class. He initially intended to become a family physician, but a required medical school research project redirected his interests. Following medical school graduation in 1971, Dr Brumback began a 2-year stint as a pediatric resident at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. After completing general pediatrics in 1973, Roger and Mary moved to St Louis in order for him to begin training in pediatric neurology. While training in St Louis, Roger Brumback met several people who were influential in his professional development, including Philip R. Dodge, William Landau, Marvin Fishman, Warren Weinberg, and Joseph Volpe. Between 1975 and 1977, Dr Brumback served as a clinical associate in clinical and experimental neurology, neuropathology, and clinical neurophysiology with the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland. After brief work stopovers in Pittsburgh and Fargo, North Dakota, the Brumback family in 1982 moved to Rochester, New York, in order for Roger to begin pathology training at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. After completing his pathology residency and neuropathology fellowship in 1986, Brumback was recruited to the University of Oklahoma by his longtime friend and mentor Richard Leach. In 1997, he was named a David Ross Boyd Professor in honor of his teaching excellence. In Oklahoma, Roger established a clinical and research program in Alzheimer disease, and the Oklahoma Alzheimer’s Association created the Brumback Award to recognize individuals who made outstanding contributions to Alzheimer disease research. In 2001, Brumback was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at Creighton University School of Medicine, a post he held until 2010. He had recently announced his plans to Figure 1. Roger Alan Brumback, MD. Reprinted with permission from M. H. Brumback. Journal of Child Neurology 28(6) 703-705 a The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0883073813493717 jcn.sagepub.com