Jack_Berman_1Conceived by his family and enthusiastically embraced by the university, the Jack H. Berman, MD, lectures are intended to continue the goals of an exceptional career while celebrating its achievements.

A 1951 Western Reserve University School of Medicine graduate, Dr. Berman entered a practice after serving as a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and residencies at the Cleveland City and St. Lukes’ hospitals. He was board certified in internal medicine in 1962 and elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians in 1996. His special interests were hematology and oncology and in 40 years the private practice group of which he was president had grown to over 12,000 patients.

Dr. Berman was not only devoted to his patients but also served as an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine for over 30 years at Case Western Reserve University Medical School in the hematology and physical diagnosis core curriculum.

When he retired from active practice at the end of 1998, Dr. Berman’s wife, Barbara, and their children thought his extraordinary ability to combine the art and science of medicine should go on finding a voice in the voices of others. Case Western Reserve was the obvious platform because of the entire family’s ties to the University.

Barbara is a graduate of Flora Stone Mather College and the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and has been a preceptor in the clinical science programs at the Medical School. Their son, Jeffrey Berman, MD, now Professor of Medicine at Boston University, is a Case Western Reserve Medical graduate, as is son-in-law Andrew Bechuck, MD, Professor of Gynecological Oncology at Duke University School of Medicine. Daughter Amy Berman-Berchuck and son-in-law Paul Segall, PhD (Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University) received their undergraduate degrees at Case Western Reserve University.

The first Annual Jack Berman lecture was held October 2000 with Eugene Braunwald, MD, Faculty Dean for Academic programs, Harvard Medical School speaking about congestive heart failure. Soon after the first Annual Lecture, Dr. Berman’s health was beginning to decline. Dr. Berman passes away shortly after the third Annual Lecture, December 2002 presented by Michael J. Welsh, MD, University of Iowa College of Medicine spoke about pursuing cystic fibrosis in search of understanding and new treatments.