Marshall Wolf, Photo credit: Stu Rosner

After an esteemed 52-year career of caring for patients with the highest standards of excellence and selfless dedication, Marshall Wolf, MD, emeritus vice chairman for medical education at BWH, has decided to retire from his clinical practice on Sept. 30.

In Wolf’s honor and with the strong support of his patients, the Department of Medicine is establishing the Marshall A. Wolf MD Master Clinician Educator Program at BWH. Wolf will become the inaugural incumbent.

The program will ensure that medical students and residents have direct contact and individual mentoring opportunities with the hospital’s highly regarded senior teachers, including Wolf. Faculty who participate in the program will hold bedside teaching rounds and conferences, serve as role models and clinical coaches, and advise the department and hospital on educational matters. Wolf served as director of BWH’s Medical Residency Programs from 1972 to 2000.

“So many of us have had the privilege of learning from Marshall over the years,” said Joel Katz, MD, Internal Medicine Residency director. “We are profoundly grateful that he has agreed to remain a presence as our inaugural master clinician educator, sharing his gifts with us and future generations of trainees.”

Known as the “dean of medical residency program directors,” Wolf has shaped the careers and professional identities of more than 2,000 physicians, including more than 1,000 who now hold full professorships at the country’s leading medical schools. His graduates are also leaders of many initiatives to improve health care, including the Indian Health Service, the World Bank and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

BWHC President Betsy Nabel, MD, met Wolf in 1981 when he hosted a dinner at his house to welcome interns, including Nabel, into BWH’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. She said Wolf’s vision and passion guided the program to become one of the finest in the world.

“His alums have made a profound impact on medicine in leading institutions around the world,” Nabel said. “While Dr. Wolf is a renowned and rigorous educator, gifted leader and skilled clinician, perhaps what is most remarkable about him is the compassion and warmth he brought to everyone he touched at the Brigham. Throughout his 52 years of dedicated service, he mentored and nurtured long-lasting relationships with his colleagues, patients, trainees and alumni, knitting together our Brigham family.”

Wolf looks forward to spending time with his wife of more than 50 years, Katie, and their children and grandchildren. He is especially grateful that he will also be able to “continue teaching and learning at BWH,” he says.