SUBJECT:

Passing of Dr. Marshall J. Orloff, Distinguished Professor of

Surgery It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Marshall J.
Orloff, MD, Distinguished Professor of Surgery Emeritus and founding
chair of the Department of Surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Dr. Orloff passed away November 6, 2018 after a brief hospitalization.
He was 91.

Orloff was a towering figure in American surgery for more than five
decades and a fixture in our community, joining the School of Medicine
faculty in 1965—before there was an actual campus or inaugural student
class.

In the following decades, Orloff’s translational and clinical research
changed our understanding of the physiology and consequences of portal
hypertension (increased blood pressure within the portal vein that
carries blood from the digestive organs to the liver) and helped define
the role of surgical shunting procedures for this potentially
life-threatening condition.

He was a leader on campus from the very beginning.

“As a member of our community, Marshall created and developed one of the
finest departments of surgery in the nation, built upon clinical
excellence, committed teaching and the translation of basic research
into the clinical arena,” said Bryan Clary, MD, FACS, current chair and
professor of surgery. “His sustained commitment to patients and to
advancing his field are best exemplified by the scope and length of his
active research, from the first of his more than 450 publications in
1949 to his last in 2015—an astounding span of 67 years.”

In recognition of his substantive contributions, Orloff received the
Society of University Surgeons’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.

Orloff was born in Chicago on October 12, 1927. He received his BS, MS
and MD degrees from the University of Illinois. (He was valedictorian of
each class.) After completing an internship at UC San Francisco, Orloff
conducted his residency in general and thoracic surgery at the
University of Pennsylvania, with a two-year interruption (1953-55) when
he served in Germany with the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He finished at
Pennsylvania as chief resident in 1958.

Orloff’s first post-training faculty position was assistant professor of
surgery at the University of Colorado, where he was honored as a Markle
Scholar in Medical Science. Three years later, UCLA recruited him to be
a full professor of surgery and chief of surgical services at Harbor
General Hospital. At the time, he was just 34 years old.

Over the next four years, numerous institutions would attempt to lure
him away, among them Yale, Columbia and the universities of Chicago and
Texas. But his next move would be his last, accepting position as first
chair of surgery at UC San Diego’s fledgling school of medicine. He was
the youngest surgical chair in the United States, and would serve in
this role for the next 16 years, stepping down in 1981, though he would
continue as an active, committed clinician, researcher and educator
until his death.

Orloff’s interests and accomplishments were many and enduring,
encompassing liver physiology, portal hypertension, cancer, immunology,
obesity, diabetes and the nascent field of solid organ transplantation.
His research was continuously funded by the National Institutes of
Health for almost half a century, from 1956 to 2004, amounting to
roughly $22 million.

He received many awards, including honorary doctorates and
professorships from universities in Korea, Greece and Sweden. He was a
visiting professor more than 250 times at more than 90 institutions
around the world and an esteemed mentor, honored with outstanding
teacher awards at Pennsylvania, Colorado, UCLA and eight times at UC San
Diego. The M.J. Orloff Family Endowed Chair in Surgery was created in
2007 with contributions from more than 200 former surgical trainees.

Orloff is survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Ann Stuart Orloff,
MD, a clinical professor of radiology emeritus at UC San Diego, and
their three sons and three daughters, who have followed in their
parents’ inspiring footsteps: Three are professors of surgery, one is a
juvenile defense attorney, one a high school teacher and one a research
medical social worker and rehabilitation counselor.

David A. Brenner Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Steven R. Garfin Interim Dean, School of Medicine Bryan Clary Chair, Department of Surgery