ONI remembers Judah Folkman, founder of angiogenesis

On January 14, Dr. Judah Folkman, founder of the field of angiogenesis, died unexpectedly at age 74 in Denver, while en route to Vancouver for a lecture. Dr. Folkman was founder and director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children's Hospital, Boston, and professor of pediatric surgery and cell biology at Harvard.

ONI often reported on Dr. Folkman's lectures. He was generous with the media, but liked to review articles for accuracy, especially in light of his 1998 experience when a NY Times piece heralded him as the man who would cure cancer, causing his office to be inundated with calls from the media and desperate patients.

So once when he did not respond to my email about an article, I called his office, and told his secretary he could call me at home. Later that night, my electricity was cut off during a thunderstorm, and that was when Dr. Folkman called. I answered on the only phone that was working, and using a flashlight, I wrote down his corrections. It turned out he hadn't responded to my email because his email file was so full it was frozen, and he could not bring himself to delete any emails without responding.