“Shortly after I joined the faculty in her division,” Dr. Luggen recalls, “she told me that I was going to be co-director of the Cincinnati site of the Cooperative Systematic Studies in the Rheumatic Diseases.” At the time, Dr. Luggen had very little background in or knowledge of clinical investigation. “She felt that that’s where I should go—and there was usually no point in resisting! I think we resisted less than we might have because we had this suspicion that she was right, and that, if we did what she asked, it would benefit us more than we could know.”
The co-directorship united Dr. Luggen with many influential and innovative investigators, such as Hal Paulus, John Ward, and Jim Williams. He now reflects, “It was a wonderful learning experience that enabled me to make contacts I would not otherwise have been able to make. To this day, my primary research interest is the design and execution of clinical trials.”
A Tough and Proactive Leader
“You always felt that you needed to be respectful of her,” notes Dr. Grant. “But after she got to know you and like you, she was very kind and always tried to give to us. Tickets to the opera house or a hockey game would somehow wind up on your desk, and you didn’t know what you had done to possibly deserve that!”
Ram Raj Singh, MD, professor of medicine, pathology, and laboratory medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles was also the recipient of Dr. Hess’ generosity. As a team leader, he says, she had real warmth for the other people in the group. “When people did good work, she would go out of her way to show her appreciation. There wasn’t a week that I did not receive something from her in my mailbox: either a paper from Science or another journal related to lupus, or a ticket to the Reds game.”
Dr. Spencer-Green agrees: “She was very generous in many ways and would always share what she could.” He recalls that Dr. Hess first sought him out after he presented a paper at the ARA’s annual meeting in 1975. At the time, Dr. Spencer-Green was an intern on the general medical house staff at the University of Cincinnati. His medical school mentor had submitted his research project in rheumatology. Dr. Hess sought him out and recruited him to join her fellowship program. When he completed his fellowship, Dr. Hess helped him obtain a postdoctoral grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), get an appointment in the department of pathology and laboratory medicine, an appointment in the department of medicine, and a position as chief of immunology at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center. Dr. Spencer-Green was also the first fellow to receive training support through the Ohio Arthritis Act, which Dr. Hess had been instrumental in establishing.
