Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings January 2014, Volume 27, Number 1 | Page 56

oncology; when I arrived in 2008 there were more than 10
times that many, and over 150 members of the Department
of Oncology.
Dr. Stone’s accomplishments here at Baylor were amazing.
He oversaw the building of the first Sammons Cancer Center,
initiated the bone marrow transplant program, established the
Cvetko Center, and got approval for a medical oncology fellowship program. He was among the visionaries that began the
process that led to this magnificent building.
In an interview in 2001, Dr. Stone was asked, “Are there
some goals that you would like to accomplish before you retire?”
He answered, “I’d like to develop some new programs and expand others, for example, in cancer prevention, genetic counseling, and psychosocial support activities.” Well, you can check
off all of those boxes.
Dr. Stone made it very easy for me when I came here in
2008. No one could ask for a predecessor who was more gracious and supportive. During these last 4½ years he has provided
valuable wisdom, knowledge, and leadership.
The legacy that Marvin Stone has left will not be forgotten, but just so we have reminders every day about what a true
scholar is, a portrait of Dr. Stone with his treasured microscopes
and books will hang in the oncology classroom on the fifth floor,
and in addition, the education suite on the fifth floor will be
known as the Marvin J. Stone Medical Oncology Education
Suite (Figure 2).
JOHN E. PIPPEN, MD
As I reflected on the years that Marvin Stone has been my
friend and mentor, I tried to think of the things that make him a
great teacher of medicine. One of the most important of these is
a sense of humor. On the first day of my fellowship, I sat across
the desk from him, unable to hide the nervousness of a first-year
oncology fellow. He asked me what my learning goals were for
the next 2 years. After I recited a few of the typical answers to
this question, he told me he would like for me to have one major
goal. He said that by the end of my fellowship, it would be his
hope that I would be able to use 15% of my brain. With the
ice thus broken, I was off and running on what I remember as
a very rich 2-year learning period in my career. I am happy to
report that I am now at 20%.
A good teacher in medicine is one that can teach students
at all levels. Th is includes possessing the ability to teach
those that think they already know it all. Over the last 20
years, there have been a number of us that spent some time
practicing internal medicine before returning for a fellowship in medical oncology. This can be a tough crowd when
it comes to successful teaching. All of us on this career path
agree that Dr. Stone provided the right mix of encouragement and cajoling to send all of us back to practice with
the background to be successful medical oncologists. One
Tuesday afternoon during his weekly microscope teaching
rounds, I looked around the door to see who was there. At
the scope were fellows, a medical resident, a medical student, and my 14-year-old son Charlie. He had heard about

54

Figure 2. Dr. Alan Miller and John McWhorter unveiling the nameplate for the
Marvin J. Stone Medical Oncology Education Center.

the microscope rounds and wanted to listen in. That night,
Charlie made the correct observation that polychromasia
is pretty easy to spot if you just remember to look for it.
Dr. Stone would have been smiling if he had heard this statement from my eighth grader.
One recent day I picked up my copy of Aequanimatas. A
copy of this great book by Sir William Osler was presented to
me by Dr. Stone in 2002. I looked up Osler’s comments on
teacher and student. What did Osler say makes a great teacher?
He wrote:
First, enthusiasm, that deep love of a subject, that desire to teach
and extend it without which all instruction becomes cold and
lifeless; secondly, a full personal knowledge of the branch taught;
not a second-hand information derived from books, but the
living experience derived from experimental and practical work
in the best laboratories. . . . Thirdly, [teachers] are required who
have a sense of obligation, that feeling which impels a teacher
to be also a contributor.

It is a rare teacher of medicine who has a sense of humor,
an ability to teach at all levels, enthusiasm, full personal knowledge of the branch taught, and a sense of obligation. I and
many others have benefited from Dr. Stone’s great teaching
over many years. It is with great respect that I again say thank
you to someone who has made such a difference in my personal
and professional life.
WILLIAM L. SUTKER, MD
My first exposure to Dr. Marvin Stone was when I was a
Baylor internal medicine intern in 1974. We used to watch
Parkland grand rounds on TV from the BUMC medicine
library. Dr. Stone was giving a lecture about amyloid and
talked about how many angstroms there were between the
pleats in the amyloid sheet. I thought: “Are you kidding?
Who is that guy and how is any of that relevant to practicing
medicine?” My first face-to-face encounter was when I was a
medicine resident and he came to BUMC from Southwestern in 1976. I met him in the clinic and thought: “This guy

Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings

Volume 27, Number 1