Sitting here in electoral limbo, I want to take the opportunity to mark the passing of Philip Lee, MD. He was a giant of a doctor, most famous for implementing Medicare when he served as Assistant Secretary of Health under President Lyndon Johnson. He forced hospitals to integrate if they wanted to receive Federal money.

He also served as Chancellor of UCSF, my medical school alma mater, from 1969-1971, where he hired an affirmative action coordinator and worked to increase diversity in the health science schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy. Historically, UCSF medical school had admitted one black student to the school each year. As one older doctor explained to me, if you didn’t get the spot, you went off to Meharry or Howard, the black medical schools.

The UCSF Black Caucus , a coalition of black employees from janitors to professionals, also applied political pressure to encourage diversity. By the time my husband and I applied in 1973, a black biochemistry professor, the one and only on the medical school faculty, had been appointed head of admissions for the school. I have no doubt that all these people contributed to the admissions committee’s decision to take a chance on two out-of-state students like us. They arranged a regional interview for each of us in Boston with a recent alumnus who was training at Beth Israel Medical Center. In my interview, he said: “The trouble with you Harvard students is that you apply but you don’t come. I assured him, “If you admit us, we will come.” And we did, later getting to know Dr. Lee in his capacity as the director of the Health Policy Institute that bears his name. How lucky we were.

Toni Martin Writes