Dermatology: A memoir

By Walter Larsen, MD, May 1, 2021

In July 1961, Sylvi and I drove from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon for my residency in dermatology. We were married three months before in San Francisco. We packed up all our earthly possessions into our 1957 Chevrolet including a couple of pairs of skis on top of the car. We arrived in Portland in a heat wave, and we were greeted with a lot of funny looks with snow skis on top of the car.

On a Monday morning, I met the new residents, and we were welcomed by our Chief Walter C. Lobitz Jr., MD. Dr. Lobitz had recently moved from Dartmouth to become the new chair of dermatology at the University of Oregon. Dr. Lobitz was a warm, utterly charming man with a great sense of humor. All the residents sensed this and the residency started out on a high note.

Dr. Lobitz arranged for all the residents to attend the annual AAD meeting in December 1961 at the Palmer House in Chicago. What a great meeting it turned out to be. The weekend was devoted to the basic sciences and the rest of the week was clinically oriented. Dr. Lobitz introduced us to some of the luminaries in dermatology and we met many residents and practicing dermatologists. I was extremely impressed with the friendly and fraternal atmosphere of the attendees. Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that in a few years I would become secretary-treasurer and eventually an honorary member of this august organization.

After a wonderful week at the meeting in Chicago, I returned home to Portland where I was greeted with a personal letter from President John F. Kennedy. He invited me to join the Army due to the building of the Berlin Wall. In January 1962, Sylvi and I packed the trusty Chevrolet and headed for San Antonio, Texas to report for training at Fort Sam Houston. I joined several hundred physicians in classroom training and basic training in the field for the following two months. Most of the doctors were assigned to bases in the U.S. Some were assigned to Vietnam. My orders were to serve as a general physician to the infantry at Fort Riley, Kansas.

Later in the training, my orders were changed, and I reported to the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) to do research in dermatology. Phil Catalano, MD, a first-year dermatology resident at Miami, was also assigned to WRAIR. Washington, D.C., was an exciting place to live during the Kennedy Camelot administration. I was involved mostly with research but was able to attend most of the conferences in the dermatology residency program at Walter Reed Hospital. Phil and I also spent several weeks in the jungle in Panama doing research on immersion foot which was a big problem in Vietnam. The solution was to put holes in the boots to allow water to exit the boot when out of the swamps. Dr. Sulzberger lived in D.C., and was a consultant to the Surgeon General. When we returned home from Panama, Dr. Sulzberger invited Phil and me to have lunch at the upscale Cosmos Club in D.C. This legend in dermatology turned out to be quite charming and treated us as equals. Another example of the friendly fraternal nature of our specialty.

After I completed my service obligation, I returned to Portland to complete my residency. When completed, I joined Frederick Kingery, MD, in practice in Portland. It was an ideal practice as we taught at the medical school in the morning and saw patients in the afternoon at the office. A perfect blend of academia and practice. A few years later, Dr. Paul Russell joined us. In the early 1970s, I became the assistant secretary of the Academy. My six years as secretary were interesting and rewarding because dermatology was growing rapidly in size and stature. Dermatology was becoming more accepted by the other medical specialties and was considered a leader in the field of education. It was no longer the “calamine lotion” specialty. During my time with the AAD, I made lifelong friendships with many colleagues.

Two close friends were Drs. John Strauss and Steve Katz. I worked closely with John Strauss when he served as president of the AAD. He was delightful to work with and had a great sense of humor. Together we had many interesting sailing trips to the Caribbean. Steve Katz — director of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Disease — was outgoing, upbeat, and had a great sense of humor. After a dermatology meeting in Paris, we joined him on a 10-day driving trip visiting the castles in the Loire Valley of France. When I became editor of the American Contact Dermatitis Journal, I was lucky to have Steve join the editorial board.

At an AAD meeting in 1971, Dr. Howard Maibach convened a group of people interested in contact dermatitis. The purpose was to develop a series of common allergens for patch testing in North America. I joined Drs. Otis Jillson, Marion Sulzberger, Bill Jordan, Bill Schorr, and others. The group became known as the North American Contact Dermatitis Group and developed the first standard screening series of allergens. It consisted of only 20 allergens which was updated on a yearly basis — expanding considerably over the years. My special interest was the allergens in cosmetics, specifically fragrance sensitivity. This interest led to invitations to meetings and talks throughout the world.

One of the most exotic and interesting trips was the three weeks Sylvi and I spent in Uzbekistan in 2005. I lectured in the capital, Tashkent, on contact dermatitis and patch testing at the medical school and to specialty groups including dermatologists and pediatricians. The second week was spent at a national dermatology meeting at a city in the south of Uzbekistan near the Afghan border. In addition to contact dermatitis, I spoke about the role the AAD played in education in the U.S. I mentioned the scholarship program of the AAD and, sure enough, one of the residents applied and got a scholarship to attend the next AAD meeting in San Francisco.

The final week in Uzbekistan was spent on the Silk Road visiting the famous cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. Samarkand was the most interesting with tiled mosques, mausoleums, and an extensive astronomy site. In the 14th century, Samarkand was the center of the world led by the world conqueror Tamerlane.

I retired in 2012 after 47 years of an interesting and enjoyable practice at the Portland Dermatology Clinic, which had grown to seven dermatologists. We moved into an independent living condo in a retirement community called Touchmark in Portland. Soon after we moved into the facility, a Pulitzer Prize writer gave a talk on creative and memoir writing. He told us that our story is our most important asset and encouraged all of us to write a memoir. I started in fits and spurts, but after COVID-19 arrived, I had no excuse and began to write in earnest. I finished the memoir in July 2020. Writing a memoir is work, but enjoyable work. It is a great way to live your life a second time. I enjoyed writing the memoir which included my philosophy that the most important things in life are family and friends.

My other theme for a good life is that one should eat a well-balanced diet, exercise daily, and get adequate sleep. During the last few years, I have migrated to a Mediterranean diet with mostly fish, vegetables, and fruit, and no sugar. A recent favorite is muesli. Muesli consists of rolled oats, bran, grains, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits eaten as a cereal with milk or yogurt any time of the day. It was developed by Dr. Bircher, a Swiss physician, in 1900 for patients at his hospital. It is one of those meals that not only tastes great but is good for you. I am now making muesli with a friend who has been making it for 30 years. He adds a touch of ginger which makes it special. When I eat muesli, I can almost visualize the bacteria in the gastrointestinal microbiome cheering wildly as the muesli makes it way down the gullet! In conclusion, life has been a great journey and I heartily encourage everyone to write a memoir. It is truly an interesting and life-enhancing endeavor.

Dr. Larsen’s memoir, It’s in the blood: A Memoir, is available at Amazon.com.

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