Robert M. “Bob” Blizzard, MD, was the consummate pediatric endocrinologist, melding the talents of a superb clinician with a deep understanding of the biologic issues involved in the integrative aspects of endocrine physiology and imparting that wisdom to generations of pediatricians and pediatric endocrinologists.
From early childhood, Bob was fascinated in the variations in the size of humans. Nearby his home in southern Illinois lived the Alton Giant, Robert Wadlow, whose size was widely publicized during Bob’s youth. A career as a pediatrician followed college preparation, interrupted by World War II service as a medic, medical school at Northwestern University in Chicago, and residency training at the Raymond Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa.
Bob’s investigative career had several twists and turns, all indicative of his ability to synthesize and build upon new information.
Bob moved to Baltimore to train (1955 to 1957) at the Johns Hopkins Hospital under the first great mentor of American pediatric endocrinologists, Dr. Lawson Wilkins. Bob honed his clinical skills, developed the interest in and knack for clinical investigation, and was an integral part of a very exciting group of young investigators that included Drs. Mel Grumbach, Jud Van Wyk, David Smith, Claude Migeon, and several others. After a brief stint at Ohio State University, Bob returned to Hopkins to become a member and then Co-Chief (with Claude Migeon, MD) of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology, continuing to train U.S. and international pediatricians to become endocrinologists until he took the Chair in Pediatrics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1973. He was a founding member of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (now the Pediatric Endocrine Society) and its third president for 1974-1975.
Bob’s investigative career had several twists and turns, all indicative of his ability to synthesize and build upon new information. He and his colleagues were the first to report an odd form of reversible hypopituitarism in which children who had suffered severe psychosocial stress would “recover” by removal from the home environment into a more nurturing one. It became known as psychosocial dwarfism or more appropriately, emotional deprivation (N Engl J Med. 1967; 276:1279-83; N Engl J Med. 1967; 276:1271-8.
He once told me about his attendance at a lecture by Dr. Deborah Doniach on autoimmunity that launched him on a series of projects that led him to note and then to devise a fluorescence test (Coons technique) for chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, a condition at that time thought uncommon in children. Studies in this area reported multiple organs that were affected by autoimmunity (J Pediatr. 1963; 63:1021-33).
Keeping with the theme of autoimmunity, Bob said that he wrote his best NIH grant request concerning the possible autoimmune nature of type 1 diabetes mellitus. He was just too far ahead of the state of knowledge as this grant request received a very poor score and a critique that the mechanism proposed was highly unlikely.
Bob’s investigative pursuits made another sharp turn when the efficacy of human growth hormone in children became known. It was clear to Bob that an effective system had to be devised to collect and process human pituitary glands for their growth hormone content, rather than permit the haphazard system of local collection and a possible “cornering of the market.” The Human Growth Foundation (1965) was formed by five families of patients with growth hormone deficiency for this purpose, before expanding to become a major support source for the families of children with growth disorders. Bob was awarded the Foundation’s first Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004.
Although advised by many against undertaking a more formal process for gathering pituitary glands because it would delay and perhaps derail his research career, Bob pursued it with his usual strong dedication and was rewarded several years later by the formation of the National Pituitary Agency (since renamed the National Hormone and Pituitary Program), sponsored by the NIH. For years, this governmental agency has been an enormous resource to thousands of endocrinologists and other scientists, both in the clinical and basic sciences.
Bob has received many honors and delivered dozens of prestigious lectures around the world. However, I believe the two honors that he found most satisfying were the Outstanding Leadership in Endocrinology Award (1994) given by the Endocrine Society for his contributions as well as those of his trainees and associates to teaching, research, and/or administration, as well as the Pediatric Endocrine Society’s Judson J. Van Wyk award in 2006 “in recognition of a career devoted to the ideals exemplified by Dr. Van Wyk: Scientific Excellence, Integrity and Dedication to the Health of Children.” Bob and his trainees have excelled in all aspects over more than six decades.
Bob’s legacy is more than 60 full professors (and several deans) in this country and around the world, who have had the privilege to train under him — learning the basics of clinical endocrinology, the biologic insights that had permitted him to consider and design important studies in children and to interpret the results of seemingly irreconcilable data.
Bob had many enduring relationships with his patients and their parents. His last scholarly publication was about one such relationship: an almost four-decade vignette about a patient born with a difference in sex development (DSD) [Growth hormone deficiency causing micropenis: Lessons learned from a well-adjusted adult. Pediatrics 2018; 142(1):e20174168]. One of the “take home” messages was “…R.M.B was able to provide this vital educational history [with reference to psychosocial issues] within the context of a 35-year relationship with this patient and his family.” As a colleague of Bob’s for more than four decades, I know that this was not the only such relationship.
Bob’s most important talent (at least in my opinion) has not yet been adequately stated, however — that of a teacher and mentor to fellows (I had the good fortune to be a 23-year fellow!) and junior faculty. Bob’s legacy is more than 60 full professors (and several deans) in this country and around the world, who have had the privilege to train under him — learning the basics of clinical endocrinology, the biologic insights that had permitted him to consider and design important studies in children and to interpret the results of seemingly irreconcilable data. This inquisitive mind is backed by a true love of children and a strong sense of moral values. In fact, after becoming departmental chairman at Virginia, Bob has had a second career as a strong advocate for children at the state and national levels and for the education of young pediatricians. It is for these reasons, and a long list of personal ones, that I am privileged to honor the memory of Robert M. Blizzard, MD, my teacher, mentor, and, most of all, my valued friend and colleague.
He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Polly (Pam), two children, two stepchildren, and eight grandchildren.
Alan D. Rogol, MD, PhD, is professor emeritus in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville.
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