Richard M. Silver, MD
Distinguished University Professor
Medical University of South Carolina
In Memoriam: Robert F. Willkens, MD
Robert Frederick Willkens, emeritus clinical professor of medicine in the division of rheumatology, died on November 11 at Harborview Medical Center, where he had served for more than 50 years. Dr. Willkens was a gifted clinician, teacher, and scholar, a leader in the arthritis community, and an active participant in community affairs. He first came to Harborview as an intern in 1954, completed his residency, and eventually became a clinical professor. Apart from a year as a research fellow in arthritis at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, he spent his entire career at the University of Washington in Seattle. His roles at Harborview included chief medical resident, president of the medical staff, and rheumatology section head for 40 years.
Through Dr. Willken’s work at the University of Washington, he gained worldwide recognition for his contributions to the effective treatment of arthritis in its many forms. In particular, his leadership in establishing the efficacy and defining the limits of methotrexate therapy led to his designation as “the father” of this agent, a drug now recognized as the most effective single treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Early in his career he recognized and defined a remarkably high prevalence of rheumatoid disease among the Yakama people of Central Washington; he then helped to establish the genetic basis of this association. He visited their reservation regularly over the last 30 years to provide expert consultative care. He also held numerous positions at the ACR (formerly ARA): member of the Education Council, member of the Committee on Rheumatologic Care, liaison and member of the Marketing and Communications Committee, and chair of the Local Arrangements Committee. These, among the other contributions mentioned, led to his recognition by the ACR as a Master and then as its Distinguished Rheumatologist in 1999.
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National and international recognition has come through his service on four different editorial boards, including that of Arthritis & Rheumatism and the Journal of Rheumatology. Locally, he also edited the Bulletin of the King County Medical Society, chaired the Washington State Board of Medical Examiners, served as president and then chaired the Board of Directors for the Western Washington Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation, was president of the Northwest Rheumatism Association, and received the R.H. Williams Superior Leadership Award from the Seattle Academy of Internal Medicine. In recognition of his achievements, the University of Washington established the Robert F. Willkens Professorship.
