IN MEMORIAM
Bertram Lubin, MD
1939 – 2020
Dear UCSF Community,
It is with great sadness that I share the loss of Dr. Bert Lubin, former President and CEO of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and Associate Dean for Children's Health for UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, who passed away peacefully surrounded by family on June 27, 2020.
Bert’s stellar career spanned fifty years in advancing the health and wellbeing of children. His work as a physician, researcher, hospital leader and philanthropist had a profound impact on countless children and adults. His tireless pursuit to helping disadvantaged children in the East Bay touched both his professional and personal life.
Bert grew up in Bellevue, Pa., a small town outside of Pittsburgh. He often spoke about his parents’ fruit and vegetable market where he worked from a very young age. He completed medical school at the University of Pittsburgh and did a pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Drafted into the army, Bert served in Vietnam, as a physician in a provincial health program. When he returned home, he did a hematology/oncology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. He then returned to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, to become Director of the Hematology Laboratory and an assistant professor of pediatrics.
Joining Children’s Oakland in 1973 as Chief of Hematology/Oncology, Bert started the research program there. As a scientist, he was instrumental in numerous breakthroughs, particularly in blood diseases that disproportionately affect minorities, most notably sickle cell disease. His advocacy conducting sickle cell screening on all newborns led to California becoming the first state to require such screening routinely on all newborns, a majority of states having since adopted similar policies.
In 2009, Bert was chosen to be President and CEO of Children’s Hospital Oakland, becoming the first pediatrician to serve as a CEO of a children’s hospital in California. He realized the unique challenges facing stand-alone children’s hospital, and became the driving force behind the affiliation between Children’s Hospital Oakland and the University of California San Francisco.
Bert made significant gifts to a variety of causes including First 5 California, East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, Oakland Leaf, Oakland Community Pools Project, East Bay College Fund, Notes and Words as well as founding the Center for Community Health and Engagement (CCHE) at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland. He was active in many local service organizations and served on more than a dozen boards, including the Oakland Mayor’s Health Task Force, Oakland Promise, and the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.
Bert has always been committed to the health outcomes of vulnerable populations as seen in his longtime commitment to his patients with Sickle Cell Anemia and his recent dedication to immigrant health access and care. He loved working at Oakland Children’s Hospital, where he was on a first name basis not only with the medical staff, but also with the nurses, cafeteria employees, cleaning staff, and security. He enjoyed working with everyone that makes UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland a leading hospital for the East Bay community.
In addition to playing and listening to jazz, Bert was an avid tennis player who played on his college team and continued to play as long as he could. He found great joy in watching the Warriors recent championships.
More than anything, Bert was a caring person who positively impacted as many lives as possible, whether by mentoring up-and-coming scientists through the summer internship program for young scientists or by lending a helping hand to people who needed medical advice. He had a huge heart, a warm smile, and a commitment to leaving the world a better place.
His positivity, energy, passion for children and his community was unceasing. He will be sorely missed.
On behalf of UCSF, we extend our deepest condolences to his wife Vivian Scharlach and his children
. Dr. Lubin’s family has requested donations in his name be made to the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Center of Excellence for Immigrant Child and Wellbeing and/or the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Center for Child and Community Health.
Mark Laret
President and CEO
UCSF Health
