Arnold Mittelman, MD, remembered as a patient and supportive mentor, a brilliant scholar and researcher, and a compassionate physician and colleague, died yesterday, Sunday, February 3, 2008, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Dr. Mittelman joined the Roswell Park faculty in 1961 as Associate Cancer Research Surgeon, later becoming Assistant Director of the General Clinical Research Center; and then Chief of the Colorectal Service, Department of Surgical Oncology. He also served as Research Associate Professor of Surgery at the University at Buffalo.

Though his research interests focused on molecular biology, clinical pharmacology, and colorectal surgery, Dr. Mittelman¹s knowledge base spanned the full spectrum of cancer medicine and research. He published more than 200 articles and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals and co-wrote "Chemotherapy of Urogenital Tumors" with former Roswell Park Institute Director Gerald P. Murphy, MD. He was one of only two clinicians who served as a Program Leader on Roswell Park's first Cancer Center Support Grant.

True to his signature phrase "Let's do it!," Dr. Mittelman also conducted the first clinical trials of photodynamic therapy, pioneered by Dr. Thomas Dougherty. Dr. Mittelman was a leader on many national cooperative groups including the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group, where he chaired both the Surgical Committee and the Lung Committee; the Gastrointestinal Study Group, National Prostatic Cancer Group, and the Phase I Study Group.

With Gabor Markus, MD, PhD, and Eugene Sulkowski, PhD, he co-founded RPCI's Jurassic Society to keep retired faculty involved with Roswell Park; the name was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Institute¹s senior "dinosaurs." Originally a social group, the Society evolved to sponsor an annual lecture series featuring a wide range of topics in the field of cancer.

After moving to Delaware in 2001, Mittelman established a Jurassic Society chapter at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center in Wilmington, where members serve as advisors to the administration. Dr. Mittelman, as Professor Emeritus, had the opportunity to once again work alongside his Roswell Park colleague and close friend Dr. Nicholas Petrelli, Medical Director of the facility.

Dr. Mittelman earned his medical degree from Columbia University in 1954, interned at Johns Hopkins, and served his residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Although he "officially" retired from Roswell Park in the late 1980s, he continued to be a familiar face and contributing collaborator and consultant. In 1991, both UB and RPCI conferred upon him the title of Professor Emeritus of Surgery.

Dr. Mittelman shared both his life and lifework with his wife, Edith Sproul, MD, who was Professor Emerita of Pathology at the University at Buffalo at the time of her death in 1999; she had served as Associate Chief Cancer Research Pathologist at RPCI prior to her retirement. Before coming to RPCI, she collaborated with George Papanicolau at Cornell University Medical School in developing the Pap smear.

The Mittelmans are survived by two daughters and several grandchildren. Please join me in extending our sincerest condolences to the Mittelman family. He will be sadly missed.