Roland Harrison Ingram, Jr., M.D.

Dr. Ingram, a member of this Association since 1984, was a Professor of Medicine at Emory University twice in his career [1970 –73, and 1992 –2008 (Emeritus 2000 –2008) ] and in between Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School (1979 –1989) and at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine (1989 –1992). Dr. Ingram was a prominent member in the medical Pulmonary Community. He died of lung cancer on July 7, 2008; he was 73 years of age.

Dr. Ingram was an alumnus of the University of Alabama (B.S. 1957), and of Yale University School of Medicine (M.D., Cum Laude, 1960); also, he received an honorary degree (A.M. 1979) from Harvard University. He was an outstanding student with election to Phi Beta Kappa and to Alpha Omega Alpha in his junior year of undergraduate study and of medical school. He began his medical training as an intern at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston. After assignment in the U.S. Public Health Service to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima, Japan, where he helped monitor development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (¹), he continued residency at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and then at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven. He was a pulmonary fellow at Yale (1965 –66) and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University (1966 –67). He began his academic faculty career at Emory University School of Medicine (1967 –1973) and then went to the Harvard Medical School and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (1973 –1989). Dr. Ingram was Director of the Pulmonary Division at Emory, then at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and as well at the Beth Israel Hospital (1980 –1985), and again at Emory (1992 –1997). He had a sabbatical year in London, England (1985 –86) and was at St. Thomas' Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital. After leaving Boston in 1989, he became Professor and Chief of Medicine at the University of Minnesota and the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis. He then returned to Emory as Chief of Medicine at Crawford Long Hospital (1992 –2000).

Throughout his career, Dr. Ingram received many teaching awards. A Divisional Library in his name was established at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and an Annual Honorary Lecture for him was begun in 1998 at Emory University. He and colleagues published 158 original research reports and 143 reviews, book chapters, etc. He was recognized with membership in the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, and the American College of Physicians among many others. In addition to his illustrious academic and administrative career, Dr. Ingram had a very important impact on respiratory health through his research and his leadership in the important professional societies, particularly the American Thoracic Society. While at Harvard Medical School he was the Parker B. Francis Professor of Medicine (1980 –1989). As a colleague and friend in Pulmonary Medicine, I would like to emphasize his impact and contributions to this specialty.

Dr. Ingram was always in the forefront of our discipline, truly avant-garde. Some insight into his choice of the pulmonary field for fellowship training was provided in his “reflections ” written in 2005 for the Centennial of the American Thoracic Society (²). Dr. Ingram said that in finishing an Internal Medical Residency, he felt well educated in all subspecialites except for chest medicine and selected this field to fill in this “perceived gap. ” He also recognized that pulmonary was changing its guard of investigators and clinicians from those involved with “tuberculosis ”, or the phthisiologists, to a more dynamic group of physiologists beginning to study lung diseases. At Yale during pulmonary fellowship, his early research in the mid 1960's focused on the compression of gas and air to affect the pulmonary pressure-flow and volume dynamics. This was done with Dr. Donald P. Schilder, located at Yale's West Haven VA Hospital. Dr. “Pat ” Schilder got him off to a rapid start with 5 publications from that first fellowship year, three of which were in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Dr. Ingram's basic research continued to be about pulmonary function and performance in normals and those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Asthma became more of the focus of his continuing research. His research associates and trainees included many who have become important in the pulmonary field. His presentation at the ninety-ninth meeting of ACCA in 1986 focused on the effects of deep inhalation on the change in airways size and function in airway obstruction from asthma (³). Of interest, Dr. Ingram's last research publication in 2004 was in the JAP and about deep breaths in airway obstruction in asthma (⁴).

Aside from his research productivity, Dr. Ingram promoted a congenial Pulmonary Division with many enthusiastic fellows and faculty. This conducive atmosphere was evident to an invited visitor, such as myself participating with the group in a 1988 visit, and also when Dr. Ingram visited us at Yale as a Visiting Professor. Everyone was excited, and he enlivened all of us who listened to his talks at his medical Alma Mata.

Another avenue of his leadership was in the American Thoracic Society, a principal professional society of the Respiratory community. Dr. Ingram's ladder of committee assignments began in ATS in the early 1970's when he was on the faculty at Emory University and continued for almost 20 years. The culmination was his President's year (1983 –84) of the ATS. As he wrote (²), “the scientific focus of the ATS was changing from phthisiology to physiology, and it became … a more dynamic and stimulating forum. ” His involvement helped the Society and its annual meeting to blossom, and it became the major international meeting for lung related research and education. He was honored with the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal (1996) by the American Lung Association and American Thoracic Society. When he first joined ATS the attendance at the ATS annual meeting was approximately 2,000 and by the time of his Presidency this had grown to 4400. Attendance exceeded 16,000 in 2007 (⁵).

Dr. Ingram had a superb medical career which included innovative respiratory research and excellent teaching; he provided motivation for many fellows in research training and faculty. He held prominent administrative positions, and received considerable respect and admiration from academic colleagues. He was a leader in the field of Respiratory Medicine as a writer about clinical topics and a leader of the American Thoracic Society. After retirement in 2000, Dr. Ingram remained very active. As Mrs. Ingram commented, he continued to teach and consult with colleagues, and was active in the Emeritus College at Emory University; he enjoyed a faculty book club, always having been an avid reader. He was on the Board of the Olmstead Linear Park Alliance, and participated with friends from other disciplines in a luncheon discussion group. In 2007 they spent a month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he taught in the medical school. He was supported by his lovely wife, Marguerite Colville Ingram, his daughter and his family.

I have appreciated the review and suggestions for this Memorial by Mrs. Ingram. Further information about Dr. Ingram may be found (^{6 –8}).