Dermatology Foundation

Walter C. Lobitz, Jr., M.D. To Receive Dermatology Foundation’s Lifetime Career Educator Award

For more than 60 years, Walter C. Lobitz, Jr., M.D. has played a significant role in defining and enhancing the specialty through his work as a researcher, clinician and educator.  On Saturday, March 22, in San Francisco, he will receive the Lifetime Career Educator Award from the Dermatology Foundation as part of the Foundation’s Annual Meeting of members.

The Award was created by the Foundation’s Trustees in 1999 as a means of honoring those full-time academicians who have devoted their careers to educating dermatology residents and fellows.  Dr. Lobitz is the third recipient of this lifetime honor.  George W. Hambrick, Jr., M.D. was honored in 1999, and Nancy Burton Esterly, M.D. in 2001.

Dr. Lobitz holds both B.S. and M.D. degrees from the University of Cincinnati, as well as an M.S. degree from the University of Minnesota, where he served as a Fellow in Dermatology and Syphilology at the University’s Mayo Foundation.

He left the Mayo Clinic in 1947 to start the Dermatology Department at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic and Medical Center, where he served as Chairman until 1959.  In that year, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the University of Oregon Medical School (now the Oregon Health & Science University).  He served as Chairman until 1977 and continues to teach residents and medical students as an Emeritus Professor. 

Dr. Lobitz has served as a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, Food & Drug Administration, Veterans Administration and the Departments of Defense and the Air Force.  He is an honorary Trustee and former President of the Medical Research Foundation of Oregon, Director and former President of the American Board of Dermatology and former President of the American Academy of Dermatology, Society for Investigative Dermatology, American Dermatological Association, Association of University Professors of Dermatology, Oregon Dermatology Society and Pacific Northwest Dermatology Society. 

Masters in Dermatology sums up Dr. Lobitz’ many contributions by citing his conviction that “education is teaching people how to teach,” he worked with his colleagues and organized seminars on “how to teach, how people learn and how to challenge.”

The Dermatology Foundation was created in 1964 by a group of concerned members of the specialty who sought to advance patient care through research.  The nonprofit organization raises contributions from members of the specialty and the cosmetic, pharmaceutical and equipment industries to support a broad-based program of research investigations for medical and surgical dermatology.

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