Connections with death

I read Dr Abbasi's recent From the Editor (JRSM 2007;100:205) with some interest, especially the reference to the late Dr Robert Volpe, a member of the Journal's Editorial Advisory Board, whom I knew when working at the Toronto General Hospital in the late 1950s and who died in April 2005. I believe that Fellows would be interested to know a little of the achievements of this longstanding member of the Advisory Board.

He was an internationally renowned endocrinologist and researcher, the first to highlight the role of specialized cells of the immune system in thyroid disease, and was instrumental in establishing the Canadian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism. In 1996 he gave the celebratory lecture commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Graves in Dublin. He was on the staff of several of Toronto's university hospitals as Professor of Medicine for many years. A Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for nearly 50 years, he was elected their Vice-President of Medicine, and in 2003 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada, the country's highest honour for lifetime achievement. He was predeceased by his wife and survived by his four children.

Competing interests None declared.