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Infectious Disease News remembers Leon G. Smith, MD, after his death
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Infectious Disease News Editorial Board member Leon G. Smith, MD, chairman of medicine and chief of infectious diseases at St. Michael’s Medical Center in Newark, New Jersey, died on Dec. 19 at age 87.
Smith, who completed his residency and fellowship at the NIH and Yale-Grace New Haven Hospital, was one of the first infectious disease specialists in New Jersey, according to the Star-Ledger. He founded the medical education program at St. Michael’s Medical Center, where he trained internal medicine and infectious disease physicians. Smith also was past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, and consulted with the Vatican on health care issues.
During his career, Smith received multiple awards, including the Mastership Award from the American College of Physicians, the Walter E. Stamm Mentor Award from the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Knight of Saint Gregory honor, and Castle Connolly’s Top Doctors Award for more than 15 years.
During the early AIDS epidemic in the United States when less was known about the infection and hospitals were hesitant to admit patients with AIDS, Smith worked with Archbishop Theodore Edgar McCarrick to ensure that St. Michael’s Medical Center would open its doors to these patients, the Star-Ledger reported. The facility was the first in New Jersey to establish an AIDS inpatient unit and clinic.