Former MGH Chief of Pathology dies

BOSTON -- Robert Timmons McCluskey, MD, former chief of Pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an internationally renowned professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School (MGH), died at his home in Brookline after a long battle with prostate cancer.  He was 83.

McCluskey was born New Haven, Conn., on January 16, 1923.  He received his AB degree from Yale University in 1944 and his MD degree from New York University School of Medicine in 1947.  He was trained in pathology at King's County and Bellevue Hospitals and, following military service in Germany, received an appointment to a faculty position in the Department of Pathology at NYU School of Medicine.  He rose quickly to the positions of professor of Pathology and director of the Laboratories at New York University Hospital where he worked under the talented direction of well-known scientist Lewis Thomas, MD.  It was here that he befriended colleague and future Nobel laureate Baruj Benacerraf, who became a lifelong friend.  In the late 1960s, Dr. McCluskey was recruited as chairman of the Department of Pathology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Shortly thereafter he came to HMS serving as the S. Burt Wolbach Professor and Chairman of Pathology at Children's Hospital. In 1974 he became the Benjamin Castleman Professor and chief of Pathology at the MGH, a position he held until his retirement in 1991.

Physician-scientist McCluskey was a pioneer in the study of the mechanisms of inflammation and use of immunofluorescence as an investigative tool in delineating the nature of glomerular (the part of the kidney that filters the blocked kidneys) diseases and as an aid in the differential diagnosis of renal disorders.  Included among his contributions is the description of the natural history of acute post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis, which helped bring to attention its similarity to immune complex mediated serum sickness.  He identified the important role of the clotting system in severe forms of glomerulonephritis, and described, with colleagues in New York, a new disease known as mixed cryoglobulinemia – a chronic autoimmune disorder most associated with liver inflammation due to hepatitis C.  McCluskey was among the first to recognize the clinical significance of different forms of lupus nephritis, and was a prime mover in establishing the World Health Organization Lupus Glomerulonephritis classification system, which remains the basis of the current pathologic system.  Other major contributions include the genetic identification proteinase 3, the target of devastating vascular inflammatory diseases such as Wegener's granulomatosis. The identification of this enzyme helped to form the basis of a widely used diagnostic test. McCluskey’s diagnostic acumen was reflected in many ways, including several clinicopathological case discussions in the Case Records of the MGH in the New England Journal of Medicine over the past three years. Over the course of his 50-plus year career, McCluskey published more than 200 papers on the role of the immune system in kidney disease.

McCluskey’s awards and honors are many including serving as president of the International Academy of Pathology (1985-86) and membership on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation. He recently received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Renal Pathology Society.  He also was the founding editor of the scientific journal Clinical Immunology and Immunopathology.  At the MGH, the Department of Pathology sponsors the Robert T. McCluskey Fellowship, which is given to an outstanding resident interested in immunopathology. And just last month, in tribute to McCluskey, his brother Donald established the Robert T. McCluskey Endowment at Yale School of Medicine, which will help fund an investigator in the earliest stages of his or her career.

During his tenure at MGH, McCluskey expanded the entire Pathology Department, strengthening research and updating technology.  He was responsible for the consolidation of the various clinical laboratories of the hospital into the department, and expanded both staff and research space.  By the end of his term as chief – and due largely to his superb administrative skills -- the department was strong in all three branches of pathology – anatomic, clinical and investigative.

McCluskey was an avid reader of Shakespeare and was always ready with a pithy Elizabethan quote. His impeccable German was heard from time to time in a stirring rendition of Die Lorelei.  “His dry wit and considerable common sense were his defining traits,” says Robert Colvin, MD, current chief of Pathology at MGH and McCluskey’s successor.  “He kept his good humor until the end, enjoying conversations and letters from colleagues all over the world who had contacted him to say how much his friendship and guidance meant to their careers.

“His life exemplified the joy of science.  He loved nothing more than a good idea and an experiment to test it.  He had the highest standard of truth, always thorough, thoughtful and skeptical.  In all his interactions he was self-effacing and took less credit than he deserved.”

He is survived by his wife Jean, son James daughter Ann T. Farr in addition to his brother. Funeral services are private.