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In Memoriam |
Dr. Irene Elizabeth Roeckel (Fig. 1
), a founding fellow of the Association of Clinical Scientists, died on 13 December 2006 following complications due to Alzheimer’s disease. Her professional career was focused at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington where she arrived in February 1964. Irene was one of the early faculty members at this new medical school and she helped to establish the Pathology Department there. Her primary interest was blood banking.
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Being an international medical school graduate, Irene needed to acquire additional training in the United States and she began as a rotating intern at City Hospital in New York City. This experience was followed by pathology residency at Columbia University in New York City and at the Emergency Hospital in Washington, D.C. She was certified in clinical and anatomic pathology by the American Board of Pathology in 1957 and 1958. After completing her pathology residency, Irene was appointed Assistant Professor of Pathology at Georgetown University and Chief of Clinical Microscopy at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
The newly created University of Kentucky Medical Center recruited Dr. Roeckel as an Assistant Professor of Pathology in February 1964. Her strong interest in clinical pathology and particularly in transfusion medicine led her to the Central Kentucky Blood Center in Lexington, where she had significant affliations for 21 years, functioning as Medical Director and Medical Consultant. In 1977, she became a Clinical Professor of Pathology at the University of Kentucky.
Irene was extremely active in the Association of Clinical Scientists, serving as its President in 1971; she was a member of the Association’s Executive Committee, Scientific Council, Credentials Committee, and Board of Editors. She received the Association’s Diploma of Honor in 1975 and was recognized in 1985 as the Association’s Clinical Scientist of the Year.
Irene was a fellow in the College of American Pathology and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. She was President of the Kentucky Society of Pathology in 1974. For 12 years, Irene was President of the Kentucky Association of Blood Banks; she was appointed as District Chairman for the Inspection and Accreditation Committee of the American Association of Blood Banks. In 2001, Irene received the John Elliott Memorial Award for her contributions to the American Association of Blood Banks. She directed the Medical Technicians Program at Eastern Kentucky State University. She participated in the education of medical students, pathology residents, fellow physicians, medical laboratory technicians, medical technologists, and the general public.
Her clinical and scientific interests were quite broad, as attested by numerous journal articles in anatomic and clinical pathology, book chapters dealing with toxicology, biochemistry, and transfusion medicine, and thirty lectures at meetings and workshops of the Association of Clinical Scientists.
For many years, Irene handled horses on her Pleasant Green Farm in central Kentucky, where she raised, trained, and rode thoroughbred animals. She was happiest working with "good horses" and she judged at various national and international equestrian events. Irene was a proficient violist and enjoyed playing in the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, in various string quartets, and at the Association’s musicales. An injury to her left hand from handling her horses prevented her from playing viola during her later years. In retirement, Irene volunteered as a docent at the Kentucky Horse Farm Museum and served as a trustee of Midway College.
Irene will be remembered as a dedicated pathologist, blood banker, and medical educator who could be firm and strongly opinionated, as well as friendly and personable. Her avocational interests were focused on equestrian activities and music. She successfully survived as a young girl and teenager living in Germany during World War II and became an accomplished physician in her adopted homeland, the United States of America. An amazing journey!
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