Pathology

Black pathology is big business. Two-thirds of teenage mothers are white, two-thirds of welfare recipients are white, and white youths commit most of the crime in this country. According to a recent survey, reported by the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune, the typical crack addict is a middle-class white male in his 40s. Michele Norris of the Washington Post has cited a study that discovered "no significant difference in the rate of drug use during pregnancy among women in the public clinics that serve a largely indigent population and those visiting private doctors who cater to upper-income patients.

Elizabeth V. Lautsch, 91, a researcher and former pathology professor at Temple University School of Medicine, died of pneumonia Monday, March 14, at Palm Gardens Nursing Home in Sun City Center, Fla. A native of Manitoba, Canada, Dr. Lautsch moved to Philadelphia in 1954 to join the faculty of the former Woman's College of Medicine. She later joined the faculty at Temple Medical School. She received several Golden Apple awards from Temple for excellence in teaching, and in 1968 the senior medical students dedicated their yearbook to her and another faculty member.

Joseph E. Imbriglia, 84, former chairman of the pathology department at Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital (now Allegheny University of the Health Sciences) died Sunday of Parkinson's disease. Dr. Imbriglia, who was born in South Philadelphia, graduated from South Philadelphia High School and Villanova University, where he won honors in science. He earned his medical degree at Temple University School of Medicine, then served six years in the Army and saw active duty in the Rhineland.

Dr. Hugh G. Grady, 78, of Jenkintown, an expert on ovarian cancer and a distinguished medical educator, died Saturday at the St. Joseph's Villa nursing home in Flourtown. A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Grady was the salutatorian of the Class of 1926 of St. Joseph Prep as well as of the Class of 1930 at St. Joseph College. He received his medical degree from the Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine in 1934. Dr. Grady completed his internship and residency at the old Philadelphia General Hospital.

Jerome Gardner (Letter to the Editor, Dec. 30) quoted me out of context and possibly misled some of your readers about my view of the causes of schizophrenia. The statement attributed to me - "there is no known pathology which could be identified as causing schizophrenia" - would more accurately reflect my viewpoint if it had not been taken out of context of a more complete statement, which I have made on several occasions. For example: "To date, no specific diagnosable pathology has been found; however, there have been numerous reports of nonspecific pathology of the limbic system and the diencephalon (areas of the brain)

Barbara Motylinski of Oreland says she hopes to serve as a role model and teach others about the deaf in the wake of being crowned Miss Deaf Pennsylvania at last month's pageant held at the Hilton Lancaster Resort. "There is so much interest in working with deaf children and families, and my goal is to provide the best educational method for children - where they may feel comfortable sitting in the classroom and understanding everything that is said," said Motylinski, 21. Motylinski attended Springfield public schools for most of her school years, without interpreters and note-takers, and graduated from the American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.

Louis A. Karp, 59, a prominent eye surgeon and chief of the ophthalmology section at Pennsylvania Hospital, died Monday at Wills Eye Hospital after surgery there to remove a blood clot from his brain. He had suffered a stroke Sunday at his home in Narberth. Dr. Karp had maintained a private practice in ophthalmology in Center City since 1979 and had been chief of Pennsylvania Hospital's ophthalmology section since 1990. "He was really one of a kind," said a partner, Dr. Stephen Goldman.

Dr. Irvin Lock, 66, retired chairman of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at Kennedy Memorial Hospitals/Cherry Hill Division, died Tuesday at his home in Columbus. He was a former resident of Cherry Hill and Harrisburg, Pa. Affiliated with Kennedy Memorial Hospitals for nearly 30 years, Dr. Lock served as chairman of the department of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Cherry Hill Division from 1981 until retiring in 1992. He previously had been director of laboratories at John F. Kennedy Hospital's Stratford Division from 1965 to 1967, and director of laboratories and attending pathologist at the Cherry Hill Division from 1965 to 1981.

Tests prove conclusively that Arlena Twigg was not the biological child of the couple who raised her, a pathology expert hired by their lawyers contended yesterday. "There is simply no way in which to account for Arlena being the biological progeny" of Ernest and Regina Twigg, said Dr. Robert Trelstad, chairman of the Department of Pathology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J. Trelstad said in an interview with the Daily News that a test comparing the tissue of the Twiggs with that of Arlena showed that the characteristics of her cells did not match those of the couple.

Dr. Si-Chun Ming, 89, of Bryn Mawr, a pathology professor at Temple University School of Medicine from 1971 to 1992, died Tuesday, Sept. 18, of complications from a stroke at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ming was acting chairman of the pathology department at Temple from 1978 to 1980. Temple honored him in 2003 by placing his portrait on permanent display in the main corridor of its hospital, at the same time it gave that honor to his wife, Pen-Ming Lee Ming, a professor of pathology and obstetrics-gynecology there.

She escaped from Poland soon after earning her medical degree in December 1939, three months after the Nazi invasion. She then worked in Rio de Janeiro, performing more than 400 autopsies while reporting her findings in Latin to a translator because she was not fluent in Portuguese, the language of Brazil. And seven years after arriving in Philadelphia in 1957, she became the first woman to be named a full professor at Hahnemann Medical College, according to an archivist at its successor, the Drexel University College of Medicine.

BERNADETTE Maida was only 17 when she entered the orbit of the remarkable Gilbert C. Johnson. It would be a life-changing experience for the young woman. He was in charge of the non-pathology side of Chestnut Hill Hospital's laboratory and ran the technician-training program, which Bernadette joined. She also was his student at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. She credits him with putting her career on a path that led to executive positions in the pharmaceutical industry.

William C. Frayer, 91, of Bryn Mawr, a professor emeritus of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania, died Tuesday, Jan. 17, at home from complications of cancer. Dr. Frayer worked for more than a half-century in the ophthalmology department "during a critical time of medical change and ophthalmic discovery," Joan O'Brien, chairwoman of the department at Penn's Scheie Eye Institute, wrote in a recent tribute. It quoted Dr. Frayer as saying, "Our daily contact with patients remains the single most gratifying part of being an ophthalmologist.

Baruj Benacerraf, 90, a Venezuela-born immunologist who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, died Tuesday of pneumonia at his Boston home. A physician-scientist, Mr. Benacerraf discovered that genetic factors played a central role in the function of the immune system. That finding led to a 1980 Nobel Prize for him and colleagues Jean Dausset of the University of Paris and George Snell of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He also led the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Elizabeth V. Lautsch, 91, a researcher and former pathology professor at Temple University School of Medicine, died of pneumonia Monday, March 14, at Palm Gardens Nursing Home in Sun City Center, Fla. A native of Manitoba, Canada, Dr. Lautsch moved to Philadelphia in 1954 to join the faculty of the former Woman's College of Medicine. She later joined the faculty at Temple Medical School. She received several Golden Apple awards from Temple for excellence in teaching, and in 1968 the senior medical students dedicated their yearbook to her and another faculty member.

Irene Kieba, 61, of Woodbury Heights, a research specialist in the pathology department of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Dental Medicine, died Sunday, Oct. 17, at her home after a four-year battle with breast cancer. During her 25 years at Penn, Mrs. Kieba designed and conducted many experiments and coauthored more than 20 molecular biology reports. As a microbiologist, Mrs. Kieba worked with the cloning and mapping of genes, protein purification, and hybridomas.

August Wilson wrote better plays than Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but never created a more charismatic gallery of characters who fight long and hard for a better life - and once achieving it, can't stop fighting even as they destroy one another. That such clear pathologies emerged from the Philadelphia Theatre Company's production at its Wednesday opening is the most obvious symptom of its overall (though not exactly consistent) excellence. The play was Wilson's first big success, even if the long view of the script is somewhat bewildering.

Bernett L. Johnson Jr., 76, a dermatologist, a retired Navy captain, and an artist, died of duodenal cancer last Friday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was senior medical officer. Dr. Johnson was also a professor of dermatology and associate dean for diversity and community outreach at the Penn School of Medicine. From 1995 until 2006, he was associate dean for the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Philadelphia, where many of Penn's medical personnel train.

Rex Boland Conn Jr., 80, of Center City, a physician and educator who was head of clinical labs at Thomas Jefferson Medical College and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, died of Parkinson's disease March 2 at Hahnemann University Hospital. After graduating from high school in 1945 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Dr. Conn joined the Navy Reserve in the final year of World War II. He was trained as a radar specialist before being discharged in 1946. Dr. Conn earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1949 from Iowa State University and a medical degree in 1953 from Yale University.