Marvin J. Stone, MD

Dr. Stone's mother attended the ceremony, as did his wife, Jill, his son, Rob, and daughter-in-law, Melissa, and his daughter, Nancy. Among the evening's many highlights was a video prepared by Rob. In it, colleagues and family shared their memories of how Dr. Stone had touched their lives.

The initial gift to establish the library came from Bobbie and Leo Fields. Mrs. Fields was at one time a patient of Dr. Stone. Her husband said, “A caring, competent, and compassionate doctor can change a patient's life, and that's what Dr. Stone did for my wife. Marvin cares deeply about his patients. He is a role model, a special physician.”

Mary Ann Allison, MD

I was a medical technologist in Dr. Stone's immunology laboratory. When I wanted to go to medical school, he encouraged me. I returned to Baylor as a physician and a fellow in the fellowship program he directed. Now that I'm in practice, I think about practicing like him, being the sort of person he is, trying to pattern my interactions with patients on the example he set. He would spend the time to give patients his full attention. It wasn't a high-powered rushing in and out. He was really the kind of doctor you wanted. It amazes me that he gave so much time to teaching and still had a full-time practice. I don't know how he ever got to the end of the day.

Darryl Bindschadler, MD

I first became acquainted with Marvin Stone in 1963, when we were interns at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Together we went from being inexperienced, inefficient, and exhausted to being experienced, efficient, and exhausted. We didn't have CT scanners or MRIs, but we did have Dr. Carl Moore, our professor of medicine and mentor, one of the great physicians of the century. When I stop to think back over those years, I am reminded that there were only a few people I trained with who were really outstanding when it came to reliability, constancy, intellectual honesty, hard work, and genuine caring for a patient. One of those was Marvin Stone. Thirty years later, when the American College of Physicians governorships offered us the opportunity to renew our friendship, I realized that, to a greater extent than anyone in our generation, Marvin had acquired the professional and personal qualities of Carl Moore. Considering how Dr. Stone has combined academic excellence, scientific achievement, and scholarly writing with a career-long commitment to being a caring physician, you can clearly see that he richly deserves this honor.

Barry Cooper, MD

I have known Marvin since I arrived at Baylor in 1979. He has provided a link between academia and clinical practice for myself as well as many other clinicians during his tenure at Baylor. In my training the tripod of practice, research, and teaching was emphasized, but Marvin Stone best embodied these virtues as a teacher, clinician, and investigator. He is truly a consummate clinician.

In recent years Marvin sparked in me an interest in William Osler and the American Osler Society. Today, as we dedicate the library, I am reminded of what Osler said about learning: “If a license to practice medicine meant the completion of education, how sad it would be for the practitioner, how distressing for his patients. More clearly than any other, the physician illustrates the truth of Plato's saying, that education is a lifelong process.” To Marvin Stone, education is clearly a lifelong endeavor.

His accomplishments have required a secure family life, and Jill provides that foundation. She was also kind enough to share with me a few anecdotes about Marvin. When he was at medical school in Chicago, they lived in a tiny apartment. As you can imagine, every nook and cranny was filled with books. Then one night Marvin came home from anatomy class with a box full of bones—in fact, a complete skeleton. The only place for storage was under the bed! Now, we're not sure about Marvin, but at least for Jill this did not enhance a romantic atmosphere.

Michael Emmett, MD

My definition of an ideal physician is an individual who is a healer of body, mind, and spirit, a teacher who passes on the art and science of medicine, and an individual who serves as a role model for both students and young physicians. I've known Marvin Stone for 25 years, and he fulfills every one of these ideals. Marvin has tried to emulate Sir William Osler, and as much as any physician I know, he has achieved that goal.

John S. Fordtran, MD

How has Marvin achieved so much? The answer, I think, is that he had the discipline to pattern his life after 2 men he greatly admired. As we have heard, one was Carl Moore and the other was William Osler.

Osler said, “I desire no other epitaph than the statement that I taught medical students on the wards, as I regard this as by far the most useful and important work I have been called upon to do.” Marvin excelled at teaching. In 1987, when he was offered a distinguished position at another institution, the housestaff at Baylor sent him a letter. It said, “We only wish to acknowledge in a formal way how important you are to the teaching program and how sorely you would be missed by us all.” It was signed by every member of the internal medicine housestaff. Marvin told me that letter meant more to him than any honor he had ever received. He chose to remain at Baylor.

Marvin, it's been wonderful working with you these 20 years. I cherish our relationship.

Zelig H. Lieberman, MD

I've been asked to talk about Marvin's relationship with the cancer center. It opened in 1976, and he has always been the chief of oncology. It's grown with his leadership.

He's been a teacher not only to medical students but to all of us. We take care of patients together. The phrase “integrated management” is overused, but that's what we pride ourselves on at the cancer center. Marvin has deep compassion for patients and an ability to mold doctors into multidiscipline groups.

We describe the cancer center as a “bottom-up” organization. The decisions are made by those of us who practice at the hospital. This design, which Marvin espoused, has kept the focus on patient care. Another principle that defines the cancer center and differentiates it from any other in the country is the outreach program. Marvin's ability to work with other doctors was crucial to its development. The goal is to keep patients as close to home as possible, instead of making them come here for their care and follow-up. Our doctors fly to cities all over Texas to care for patients. Marvin also has a great ability to recruit high-level people to run important programs. We're very thrilled and proud of Marvin.

Robert G. Mennel, MD

I think that the library is a very fitting gift to honor Marvin. The qualities that a library conjures up are qualities that he has exemplified in his life:

• Scholarship. It doesn't mean just learning something but knowing it inside out, teaching it, moving the field forward. Marvin has published over 130 articles, books, or chapters. His colleagues know that if you ask him something, you'll get the correct answer.
• Education. The word means to lead from within yourself information. Marvin has done that. He's touched the lives and educated more than 1500 medical students, residents, and fellows.
• nspiration. Marvin's life has been an inspiration to us. He's given us an example to emulate.
• Peace. A library is a quiet place. Marvin has created a peaceful place for many of us, a safe haven in which we can do our best work.

John E. Pippen, Jr., MD

The best teachers in medicine are those who can put their students at ease, who have a sense of humor. I remember on the first day of my oncology fellowship, I was sitting across the desk from Dr. Stone, and he asked me what my goals were. I nervously rattled off a few things. He looked at me and said, “Why don't I tell you what my goal is for you. By the end of this fellowship, I would like you to be able to use 15% of your brain.” I'm happy to report I'm now up to 18%.

Dr. Stone also exemplified kindness. One afternoon when I was a fellow, I was sitting in Dr. Stone's office, and he received a phone call from the family of one of his patients, a young lady who had breast cancer and wasn't doing very well. The family told Dr. Stone how they were getting frustrated and needed some guidance. He hung up the phone and explained the situation to me. He then looked at me and said, “Your car or mine?” The next thing I knew we were going to her house.

I can't think of a better compliment to a great teacher than the one several experienced physicians have paid to Dr. Stone by leaving their internal medicine practice and joining him in the study of oncology.

Jonathon Uhr, MD

I've been asked to focus on Marvin's accomplishments in science. Between his second and third years of medical school, he spent a year studying pathology under Robert W. Wissler, MD, PhD, and earned a master's degree in pathology. At the National Institutes of Health he worked with a brilliant immunologist, Henry Metzger, MD. They published a series of classic papers describing various immunoglobulin diseases, at a time when immunology was just beginning to be established as a core science. His work was among the first to suggest that cancer might result from an immune response gone awry. I read many of those papers before I ever met Dr. Stone.

Here at Baylor, Marvin and I and other physicians began to treat lymphoma in a completely different way than was done previously. We used an immunotoxin (monoclonal antibody linked to a toxin) that does not have the severe side effects of chemotherapy. This therapy is presently being studied in more advanced clinical trials. The toxin we used became famous in the 1970s when the KGB used a drop of it on the tip of an umbrella to assassinate a Bulgarian diplomat.

He has also contributed to the treatment of liver cancer by giving patients chemotherapy before, during, and after transplantation. Marvin, I expect you and your colleagues to make extraordinary achievements in the next millennium.