I. Jerome Flance, in whose honor this Visiting Professorship was established, graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in 1935. He served his Internship and Residency in the Department of Pathology at Jewish Hospital followed by Residencies at Robert Koch Hospital, at that time the St. Louis City Tuberculosis Hospital and the Pneumonia Service at Harlem Hospital in New York. On his return to St. Louis, he joined the clinical faculty at Washington University where he became the Director of the Washington University Pulmonary Service at St. Louis City Hospitals. In 1953, Dr. Flance initiated the Home Care Program at Jewish Hospital serving for eleven years as its director and instituting a home care program for tuberculosis patients, the first such formal program in the United States. He has also served as Medical Director of the St. Louis Lung Association, president of the medical staff at Jewish Hospital, a member of the St. Louis Lung Physicians to combat air pollution, and continues to serve on the Medical School’s National Council.
Dr. Flance has authored publications relating to the fields of pulmonary disease and home care, and he holds memberships in several medical and scientific societies. He was the Department of Medicine Teacher of the Year in 1981 and Alumni Founders Day Honoree in 1986. He received an Alumni/Faculty Award from the Medical Center’s Alumni Foundation in 1990, and was honored with a Distinguished Alumni Scholarship in his name in 1992 and the University’s Second Century Award in 1994. In recognition of his achievements, the Rosemary and I.J. Flance Professorship of Pulmonary Medicine was established in 1997. Since retiring from clinical practice in 1998, he has continued his work in community health as the Medical Center’s representative for the redevelopment of the Forest Park Southeast community. In recognition of his career accomplishments, he received in 2002 the highest honor from the University—an honorary degree for a doctorate of humanities.
In 1976, friends and patients honored his teaching by establishing the I. Jerome Flance Visiting Lectureship. This lectureship enables the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine to host a distinguished physician to share expertise in clinical investigation and basic science of lung disease. This activity also reminds us annually of Dr. Flance’s extraordinary dedication to the art and science of medicine.
Dr. Flance was an invaluable contributor to Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and to other programs at the School of Medicine. His passing will leave a significant void in our academic community, and he will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues here and all over the world.
Dr. Flance is survived by his wife, Rosemary; his daughter and son-in—law, Patty and Jack Croughan, and his son and daughter-in-law, Steve and Kristen Flance.
Each year, the Division invites a distinguished pulmonary physician as its I. Jerome Flance Visiting Lecturer in honor of Dr. Flance, an esteemed member of the pulmonary community at Washington University Medical Center. The Flance lecturer participates in two days of activities with students, house staff, fellows and faculty, culminating in the Flance lecture.
Recent Lectureships
- Russell Hull, MD – 1977
- Jeffrey Drazen, MD – 1978
- Richard Charles Boucher, Jr., MD – 1979
- Thomas A.E. Platts-Mills, MD – 1980
- Jeffrey A. Whitsett, MD – 1981
- John A. Pierce, MD – 1982
- Kenneth M. Moser, MD – 1983
- Michael J. Welsh, MD – 1984
- Ronald Crystal, MD – 1985
- Talmadge E. King Jr., MD – 1986
- John E. Repine, MD – 1987
- Ewald Weibel, MD – 1988
- Nicholas Anthionisen, MD – 1989
- David V. Bates, MD – 1990
- Brian Hills, DSc, ScD – 1991
- Roland H. Ingram, Jr., MD – 1992
- Peter T. Macklem, MD – 1993
- Joseph H. Bates, MD – 1994
- E. Regis McFadden, Jr., MD – 1995
- Richard V. Ebert, MD – 1996
- John B. West, MD, PhD – 1997
- Eugene D. Robin, Jr., MD – 1998
- Gary W. Hunninghake, MD – 1999
- Dean Sheppard, MD – 2000
- Jack A. Elias, MD – 2001
- Norbert F. Voelkel, MD- 2002
- John R. Hoidal, MD – 2003
- Joe G.N. Garcia, MD – 2004
- Robert M. Senior, MD – 2005
- David A. Schwartz, MD – 2006
- Thomas Martin, MD – 2007
- Michael J. Holtzman, MD – 2008
- Marlene Rabinovitch, MD – 2009
- Richard Light, MD – 2010
- K. Frank Austen, MD – 2011
- Augustine Choi, MD – 2012
- Rubin Tuder, MD – 2013
- Jason Chirstie, MD – 2014
- Homer A. Boushey MD – 2015
- Allan I. Pack, MBCHB, PhD – 2016
- Victor J. Thannickal, MD – 2017
- Elbert P. Trulock, MD – 2018
- Sally E. Wenzel, MD – 2019
- Bonnie W. Ramsey, MD – 2020
- Melanie Koenigshoff, MD, PhD – 2022
- MeiLan K. Han, MD, MS – 2023
- Paul W. Noble, MD – 2024