Fellows Profile: Arthur Aufses, Jr.

Arthur Aufses, Jr., MD

New York, NY

Dr. Arthur H. Aufses, Jr., is having lunch in the Faculty Club of Mount Sinai School of Medicine on 98th Street, a quiet refuge overlooking the gritty stretch of uptown Madison Avenue. No Gucci or Prada or Barneys this far north on Madison: bodegas and street vendors are the norm. The medical school overlooks some sobering slices of urban life. To the north are the Carver Houses projects, a city-run complex of high rise, low-income apartments; to the west is the block-long Mount Sinai Hospital, whose sidewalks are awash with the sick— people in wheelchairs, on crutches, being helped out of ambulettes.

Dr. Aufses has looked out on this scene many times, and has helped many of the people who’ve streamed in and out of the hospital during his distinguished 45-year career there. And for all of that time, Aufses has been a Fellow of The New York Academy of Medicine. Though Aufses followed in the footsteps of his late father—a Fellow and also a Mount Sinai surgeon— it was a practical, not sentimental, motive that led him to become a Fellow in 1958. He needed good medical research facilities, and the Academy’s first-rate library fulfilled that need.

“In the early years, Mount Sinai hospital lacked a great library,” Aufses said. “The Academy was only three blocks away. I’d go up and use the Academy library more than anything else.” In his typical straight-talking style, Aufses said that NYAM's usefulness to him waned as Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM) and most other medical schools established their own fine clinical libraries. “A lot of people felt, give the Academy a few years, and it’ll disappear,” he recalled.

Then in 1990, Dr. Jeremiah A. Barondess was named as NYAM's President, and Aufses received phone calls from Dr. Martin Cherkasky and Dr. Saul Farber—two powerhouses in New York’s medical community—asking that he serve on the Academy’s Board of Trustees. Aufses accepted, reluctant to turn down a request by men he respected. Aufses remembers his astonishment to learn that high-level businessmen like attorney Henry King, whose client roster has included Morgan Stanley and Exxon, belonged to NYAM’s board. “I’d asked myself, what’s his agenda? It must be pure altruism.” Aufses remained on the board from 1991-99, serving on the Library Committee from 1995-99 and on the Development Committee since 1998.

“It was among the most fun eight years I’ve ever had,” Aufses said fondly of his time as a Trustee. “The Academy has had a complete renaissance under Jerry. I saw something that was almost in rigormortis become a vibrant institution.”

Today 77, Aufses has enjoyed a rich professional life as a surgeon, professor, private practitioner and department chair. Most of his career has been spent at Mount Sinai: for 22 years, he was Chairman of the Department of Surgery at MSSM, and Surgeon-in-Chief at the hospital. He has performed thousands of surgeries over the years to correct conditions like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and colon cancer. Aufses even helped design the medical school’s first curriculum before the school’s opening day in 1968. The opportunity to train students and residents has been the most fulfilling part of his career, he says without hesitation. “That’s why I gave up a busy private practice,” Aufses said. “I got tired of just operating on patients. It’s very gratifying to train young people and to find out later they’ve become successful.”

On May 9, Aufses gave the 34th commencement speech to MSSM graduates, an honor he calls “the pinnacle” of his career. Speaking to the graduates who filled Avery Fisher Hall, he stressed the importance of teaching and mentoring for keeping the medical profession at its best. In that regard, Aufses has been a role model. His own service as a physician and educator has been recognized with the Gold-Headed Cane and the Jacobi Medallion, two of the highest tributes that can be paid to a Mount Sinai physician. And this year at commencement, he received an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters.

Aufses, father of two and grandfather of four, lives within a six-minute walk from Mount Sinai. Since he spends so much of his personal and professional life in a relatively small geographic area, he makes it a point to escape most weekends to his Long Island retreat. It’s there that he pursues his three hobbies—surfcasting, nature photography and growing and breeding daylilies—which help to preserve his inner calm. “You’re out there with no phones, no pagers,” Aufses says, the thought bringing a smile to his face.

Although now mulling retirement, Aufses has recently taken on a new role as an historian. He recently co-authored a 494-page account of the hospital’s most important scientific contributions since its founding, entitled, “This House of Noble Deeds: The Mount Sinai Hospital, 1852-2002.” He is now hard at work on a book about the medical school, which is a comparative toddler at 40 years old. “It’s not as much fun,” Aufses said of the project. “I’ve lived through it all.”

Specialty:
General Surgery

Member of Section(s):
History of Medicine and Public Health, Surgery