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Rodger C. Haggitt,
M.D.
August 28, 1942 - June 28, 2000 |
Dr. Haggitt was one of the most influential gastrointestinal pathologists of our day.
He epitomized the qualities we all strive for as pathologists, including his excellence as
an educator, a diagnostic pathologist, a researcher, and a dedicated servant to the
pathology community and profession.
Dr. Haggitt was born on August 28, 1942 in Detroit, Michigan, where he lived until he
was eleven. Anyone familiar with Rodger's affinity for Southern aphorisms and love of
cooking barbecue will not be surprised that his family moved to East Tennessee. There he
was first exposed to pathology, at age 16, as a laboratory assistant in the local
hospital. In this capacity, he discovered his life's work while helping one of the
pathologists perform an autopsy. He continued working in the same laboratory after school,
on weekends and during summers for six more years, and by the time he finished his
undergraduate studies at East Tennessee State University, he had performed several hundred
autopsies!
During medical school at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, he again helped
support himself while increasing his knowledge of pathology, by doing more autopsies in
the evenings. After his first year pathology course, he became a student prosector in the
Department of Pathology and supervised and taught other medical students in the autopsy
room. Thus, by the time he started his pathology residency at the Baptist Memorial
Hospital in Memphis, under the direction of Eric Muirhead, he had an imposing running
start on mastering his chosen specialty. He completed his pathology training at the New
England Deaconess Hospital in Boston with Drs. Shields Warren, William Meissner, and Merle
Legg.
Fresh out of residency and with a military obligation to fulfill, Dr. Haggitt started
his attending career at Tripler Army Medical Center, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Upon completing
his military service, he was recruited back to Boston by Dr. William Meissner, and resumed
his career as one of pathology's rising stars.
In 1977, Dr. Haggitt returned to the University of Tennessee and the Baptist Memorial
Hospital, as the head of surgical pathology. In 1984, he moved to the University of
Washington in Seattle, where he spent the final 16 years of his life. The two major forces
behind his decision to move to Seattle were the late Chairman of Pathology there, Dr.
Russell Ross, and Dr. Cyrus Rubin, Emeritus Professor of Gastroenterology and Pathology.
Dr. Haggitt, Dr. Rubin, and later in 1993, Dr. Mary Bronner, formed the GI pathology staff
there and became the best of colleagues in their in research, teaching, and clinical
practice at the University of Washington. They were the very best of friends, sharing not
only their passion for GI pathology, but also for good wine, food, music and art over
Rodger's final 16 years in Seattle.
Dr. Haggitt's interest in GI pathology developed during his residency years. Since
there were no formal GI pathology fellowships at that time, he essentially taught himself
GI pathology. At about this time, the era of gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsy
capability began, and he focused on the interpretation of these specimens. He found that
this required more knowledge of clinical medicine than any other aspect of pathology he
had previously encountered, and he began to work closely with his gastroenterologist
colleagues in order to gain this knowledge. He found this quite rewarding, as the
information he obtained from patients' biopsy specimens, combined with the clinical
information he obtained from their clinicians, made it possible for him to synthesize
comprehensive and clinically meaningful diagnoses. This gave him a strong sense of
directly contributing to clinical decision making and patient care.
This desire for clinical relevance is evident upon reading Dr. Haggitt's curriculum
vitae. His numerous publications were always clinically relevant, and many have had a
major influence on the practice of gastroenterology. An example of the latter is his study
of prognostic factors for adenocarcinoma arising in endoscopically resected colonic
adenomas. He showed that the large majority of these lesions could be treated by
endoscopic resection alone, sparing the patient the need for a colectomy.
Dr. Haggitt has enjoyed working with some of the foremost clinicians in the country.
His collaboration with the late Dr. Warren Nugent, chief of gastroenterology at the Lahey
Clinic, began when he was a resident and continued for over 20 years. Together, they
published one of the first long-term prospective follow-up studies of neoplastic
progression in ulcerative colitis patients, and were able to show that endoscopic
surveillance not only improved early detection but actually reduced mortality from
colorectal cancer in these patients. While he was in the Army at Tripler, Dr. Haggitt
worked with Drs. Larry Johnson, the chief of gastroenterology, and Tom DeMeester, a
thoracic surgeon, to establish esophageal 24-hour pH monitoring as the gold standard for
the study of gastroesophageal reflux disease. In 1978, he and his colleagues at the
Deaconess Hospital published a landmark study in which they were the first to document
that dysplasia was the precursor of adenocarcinoma in Barrett's esophagus and suggested
that its detection by endoscopic biopsy could be used to help control the risk of dying
from cancer in these patients.
Dr. Haggitt continued his close collaboration with clinicians when he joined the
faculty at the University of Washington. Working with Dr. Michael Kimmey, they carried out
pioneering work on the pathologic correlates of endoscopic ultrasound images. The ability
to collaborate with outstanding basic scientists there, however, added a new dimension to
his research capabilities and interests. He continued his prospective studies on
neoplastic progression in both Barrett's esophagus and ulcerative colitis, now with a
multidisciplinary research team including Cyrus Rubin, Peter Rabinovitch, Mary Bronner,
Teri Brentnall, David Crispin and others. At the time of his death, he served as the
principal investigator on a NIH-funded R01 grant supporting his work on ulcerative
colitis, and was an investigator on several other R01 and P01 grants.
At heart, Dr. Haggitt considered himself a "gut" oriented GI pathologist, but
he made several important contributions to hepatic pathology, as well. These include the
first American description of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, and with the surgeon James
Williams at the University of Tennessee, the implementation of protocol hepatic allograft
biopsies, first in canines and then in humans. These protocol biopsies are now standard
practice in many transplant centers. He and Dr. Williams also authored the first
description of functional cholestasis in hepatic allografts.
Dr. Haggitt was a dedicated and generous mentor to a generation of pathology residents
and fellows. He also actively participated in post-graduate pathology education, where his
efforts have had a great impact on the practice of pathology. Through his activities with
the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and according to the directors of that
organization, he taught more practicing pathologists and had more influence on the
practice of GI pathology than any other single person working with that organization.
Dr. Haggitt served as the youngest ever ASCP Anatomic Pathology Council member, and was
its chairman. He received the Distinguished Service Award of the ASCP's Commission on
Continuing Education in 1989. He has served the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology as a
member and subsequently moderator of the evening GI Specialty Panel, as a faculty person
for summer Diagnostic Pathology courses, as a member of the Abstract Review Board, as a
member of the Council and on the nominating committee. He served on the Anatomic Pathology
Test Committee of the American Board of Pathology for seven years.
Dr. Haggitt was an invited speaker at numerous gastroenterology and pathology meetings,
and has been honored with a number of named lectureships, including the Shields Warren
Memorial Lecture of the New England Society of Pathologists, the David H. Sun Memorial
Lecture of the American College of Gastroenterology, and the Professor CFA Culling Lecture
for the National Society of Histotechnology. He was selected to represent the New England
Deaconess Hospital at the symposium honoring the 150th anniversary of the Harvard Medical
School in 1998, and received the Medal of the Swedish Society of Physicians in 1999.
One of Dr. Haggitt's finest attributes is his wonderful family. They include his
beautiful and intelligent wife, Mary Jane, herself a talented pathologist, and their
incredible children, Kathryn, Scott and Libby, now all married and caring for the next
generation, his grandchildren Hanna, Kate, Jordan and Connor. They, with Rodger's mother,
Eudora, two brothers, Mark and John and his sister, Susan, all mourn his passing in the
deepest possible way.
In closing, Dr. Haggitt's personal qualities deserve more attention than can be put
into words here. To those who were fortunate enough to work with him and who came to know
him, he was typically private and quiet, unless that is, one was lucky enough to break
through his outer shell to know his other persona--an outrageously funny and ebullient
man. Rodger was a dedicated wordsmith, a fine art, jazz music, food and wine connoisseur,
a devoted deep sea and fresh water angler, and a high-performance car racing enthusiast,
including the fact that he was himself a BMW-licensed racing instructor. He possessed a
love for things of beauty, a kind heart, and an ever humble perspective. Along with the
entire pathology community, we miss him beyond all telling.
Mary P. Bronner, MD
Cyrus E. Rubin, MD |
