printable versionRuth Gross, pediatrics researcher and advocate, dies at 87
BY KRISTA CONGER
Ruth Gross
Ruth Taubenhaus "Toby" Gross, MD, professor of pediatrics, emerita, died on Oct. 16 at her home in New Orleans, La. She was 87.
In 1976, Gross became the first woman to receive an endowed professorship at Stanford when she was named the Katharine Dexter and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor of Pediatrics. She pioneered the field of general pediatrics at the School of Medicine and trained several current faculty members.
"Toby will be best remembered as a loyal friend and a demanding teacher," said Iris Litt, MD, the Marron and Mary Elizabeth Kendrick Professor in Pediatrics, emerita. "Along with her stylish dress and her generous smile, she brought rigor to both her research and her teaching."
Lawrence Hammer, MD, medical director of the ambulatory care center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, said Gross introduced him to the idea of academic general pediatrics at a time when general pediatrics was not usually an academic path. "She encouraged me to pursue my interest in early childhood eating behavior and its relationship to later obesity," Hammer said. "She also saw the conflicting priorities inherent in academia—teaching, research and patient care—and always encouraged me to thoughtfully balance all three by not allowing one to overwhelm the others."
Gross was born in Bryan, Texas, on June 24, 1920. Her father was the first Jewish professor at Texas A&M University, and her mother was the first woman to serve as director of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation for Jewish students.
She earned her bachelor's degree from Barnard College. In 1944 she was one of only two women to receive a medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She joined the faculty at the School of Medicine for the first time after completing her residency training in pediatrics at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and serving as an instructor at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England. In 1960, after a one-year sabbatical at the University of Pavia in Italy, Gross was appointed associate professor of pediatrics and co-director of the division of human genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Gross returned to San Francisco in 1966 to become chief of the department of pediatrics at Mount Zion Hospital and Medical Center. Empowered to initiate a comprehensive health-care program for disadvantaged children at the height of the "Great Society" and the "Black Power" movements, Gross realized the potential of organized medicine to improve the quality of life for the underserved. She focused on community and social medicine for the remainder of her career.
Gross returned to Stanford in 1973 as professor of pediatrics. She was a member of numerous scientific and professional societies, including the Institute of Medicine. She served as national study director of the infant health and development program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which demonstrated that aggressive social intervention significantly increased the IQ scores, cognitive development and behavioral outcomes of very low-birth-weight infants. Although Gross enjoyed her early years of scientific research, she told others she felt great fulfillment from the latter part of her career in which she worked to find new approaches to comprehensive health education and care for children.
"Dr. Gross contributed significantly to the health of children through her leadership in pediatrics and her focus on families as a unit to nurture children," said Fernando Mendoza, MD, Packard Children's chief of general pediatrics. "She was also a great mentor to a generation of young scholars, including myself."
Gross retired first to Sarasota, Fla., and then to New Orleans. She and her partner of 40 years, Tina Oliver, endured Hurricane Katrina in a hotel room without air conditioning for days before escaping to Lafayette, La. Unlike many others much younger than she, Gross returned to New Orleans, where she passed her last days in a courageous battle with cancer.
"Toby was an incredible woman," said Litt. "She applied lessons learned on the laboratory bench to the clinical research undertaken by those she mentored. She was a very important role model for many in the field of general pediatrics today."
She is survived by her life partner, Oliver; her son and daughter-in-law, Gary and Lisa Gross; granddaughters Natalie and Sarah Gross of Tyler, Texas, and a few beloved cousins and nieces.
Family and friends said donations can be made in her memory to the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, OK, 73123-1718. An online guest book can be viewed and signed at www.legacy.com.