Richard Phelps Lewis was born in Portland, Oregon, the elder son of Wava Irene and Howard Phelps Lewis, M.D. In 1952, Howard “Hod” Lewis was elected to the American Clinical and Climatological Association and served as President in 1968. He was the first Professor and Chairman of Medicine at the University of Oregon, a position he held for 25 years. During this tenure, he served as President of the American College of Physicians, Chairman of the American Board of Internal Medicine and longstanding Editor-in-Chief of the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Richard Phelps Lewis was an exceptional student, who had early thoughts of following a career in international history. During his senior high school year, he was elected President of the National Association of Student Councils. He recalled, with considerable humility, that during the national meeting of the Association in Washington DC, he was seated at the luncheon table with J. Robert Oppenheimer and Eleanor Roosevelt. His leadership talent was clearly evident at a young age.
Upon graduation from high school in 1953, Richard was granted a scholarship to Yale University. While he majored in history, he soon realized that medicine was his true calling. After graduating from Yale he applied and was accepted to the University of Oregon Medical School. He was elected to AOA and registered as second in his class, receiving “A” grades in all courses except one, physical diagnosis, the course that his father taught.
Richard was certain that academic medicine was to be his career. He served his internship and one year of residency at he Harvard Peter Bent Brigham program. He often commented on the exciting experience of clinical rounds with the likes of George Thorn, Richard Gorlin, Lewis Dexter, Bernard Lown and Sam Levine. He singled out Sam Levine as the perfect teacher, who allowed the house staff to care for his patients, while he, the attending physician, stood well in the background. Richard followed this practice throughout his long-term experience as house staff teacher and mentor.
In 1963 Richard returned to the University of Oregon as the Howard Irwin Fellow in Cardiology. It was the early era of open-heart cardiac valve surgery and of coronary and peripheral angiography, in which the University of Oregon faculty played an innovative role. Renewed emphasis on coronary artery disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment was emerging and the science of noninvasive cardiac diagnosis was in its early development. His fellowship in Portland fulfilled his expectation for a complete contemporary cardiovascular learning experience. Following his fellowship, Richard added a year of clinical medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, to complete his general internal medical training.
As a Berry Plan enlistee, Richard entered military service in 1966–68, at the rank of Captain, in the US Army Medical Corps, assigned to the Madigan General Hospital in Tacoma, Washington. At the time, Madigan General was a wartime teaching hospital with a complete house staff training program, an up-to-date cardiac catheterization laboratory and a coronary care unit, which afforded collaborative clinical teaching, research and active practice. After completing a two-year tour of duty as Associate Chief of Cardiology, he remained in the US Army Reserve, ultimately achieving the rank of full Colonel.
In 1968 Richard returned to Stanford University, where he was assigned to the Palo Alto VA Hospital, a major psychiatric center. This assignment left little opportunity for cardiovascular research or teaching. Fortuitously, Richard met a former colleague at the University of Oregon, Dr. Harold Sandler, who at the time was Director of the NASA Ames Cardiovascular Research Laboratory. In the course of his discussion with Dr. Sandler, Richard expressed his interest in joining a University with a well-rounded academic cardiovascular program. Without hesitation, Dr. Sandler, who had returned from a recent visit to Columbus, Ohio, offered that the Ohio State University (OSU) cardiovascular program was just right for Richard. It took a telephone conversation in November 1968, followed by a luncheon at the American Heart Association meeting with the Chief of Cardiology at OSU, Dr. Arnold Weissler, to seal Richard's decision to join the Ohio State University faculty.
Richard moved with his family to Columbus in the summer of 1969. His research acumen and exquisite clinical and bedside teaching skills were readily apparent. Interns and residents recognized the Lewis persona and competed for close association with him. At that juncture, OSU had received two major NIH program project grants in cardiovascular research and training. Richard's presence and enthusiasm added substantially to the acquisition of gifted fellows and a productive research program. When Dr. Weissler accepted the position of Chairman of Medicine at Wayne State University, there was no doubt that Richard Lewis would succeed to the Directorship of the Cardiovascular Division. Richard rose rapidly through the academic ranks to full professor in 1975.
Under his leadership the Division of Cardiology grew and prospered. Richard's extraordinary skills in cardiovascular teaching, research and patient care were complemented by his adroit administrative acumen. He retained the Directorship of the Division of Cardiology from 1971 to 1986. During this period his many talents came to the attention of the national cardiovascular community. His extensive publications included studies on noninvasive cardiac diagnosis, cardiac chamber function, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia, cardiovascular pharmacology, coronary heart disease, valvular heart disease, mobile pre-hospital and coronary unit care. In collaboration with a host of fellows and academic colleagues, his publications numbered 180 at the end of his career. Richard was invited to many visiting professorships, at such institutions as Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and multiple university programs including his own University of Oregon. He remained active in teaching, research and clinical practice to the very last days before his death.
For four decades Richard was an active Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). During the years 1993 to 2007, he was founding and continuous editor of the popular ACC Clinical Self Assessment Program (ACCSAP), an internationally recognized, media-based teaching program for practicing cardiologists. For more than 20 years he was active on the Editorial Board of ACCEL, the ACC monthly audio journal, in which he participated in interviews and commentary which were circulated in the United States, Europe and the Far East. He was elected President of the American College of Cardiology in 1996 and Master of the College in 1998. Among his many contributions to clinical education, Richard participated in the teaching programs and committees of the American Heart Association, including Presidency of the Laennec Society (1982–83) and the American College of Physicians, in which he served as Chairman (1980–1982) of the cardiovascular self assessment program of the College (MKSAP). He served as Examiner on the Cardiovascular Section of the American Board of Internal Medicine over a seven-year period. Richard established the Ohio Chapter of the American College of Physicians and served as Governor in 1976–80. His contributions to medical education in Ohio were legion.
Throughout his career Richard Lewis was able to couple his talents in research, teaching, and administrative leadership with the practice of medicine in the old style. Following in the footsteps of his father, he was a consummate clinician who never lost the talent to anticipate a patient's diagnosis on the basis of a thorough clinical interview and an exceptionally astute physical examination. So often, Richard would lament the loss of clinical skills in history and physical examination among contemporary practicing cardiologists. He was confident, that when executed deftly, the clinical examination could augment and fortify the accuracy and reduce the excessive cost of current multi-technical diagnostics, thus allowing time for personalized patient care and discussion. His last publication is a single authored paper entitled, “The Clinical Examination is Still the Lynchpin of Quality Cardiovascular Care.”
Conversation with Dick was always stimulating and never without a well-structured opinion or humorous commentary. He was an erudite gentleman, extremely well versed in literature, the arts and history, as well as the sciences. He rarely left home for a busy day at the hospital before reviewing the latest copy of the British Economist and the Wall Street Journal. Weeks later, should a debatable subject of political or social conversation arise, he would delicately cite the content of such publications thus quelling any contentious discussion on that subject.
Richard was an avid Buckeye football fan who never missed a home game, except when traveling abroad. Golf was Richard's passion and he was an avid and skilled golfer. The only time a break in his calm demeanor occurred was when he drove a rare slice or hook or missed a two-foot putt. Later that evening, out of nowhere, he would wistfully shake his head “How could I have missed that putt?” In the course of his ACC educational visits abroad, Richard and his colleagues conceived the idea of an international golf competition for cardiologists. Thus, began the annual “Cardiovascular Ryder Cup” which held alternating competitions in the USA and Europe.
Richard Lewis was a devoted husband to Penny, his wife, confidant, friend and beloved partner of 25 years. He was a loving father, imparting wisdom and the love of learning to his children, Richard P. Lewis, Jr., a prominent New York lawyer and Heather N. Brown, MD a General Internist and Hospitalist in Portland Oregon. He experienced a special joy in visiting his grandchildren Nathan and Sasha Lewis. Richard Lewis will be missed by the generations of physicians whom he trained, the patients whose lives he touched, and his family, friends and colleagues who loved him dearly.