Short Takes

Gelman Endows Epidemiology Professorship

Anna Cheskis Gelman, who devoted her career to researching and teaching epidemiology to several thousand students at the School of Public Health, has decided to assure that CSPH’s tradition of quality teaching has a secure future.

Dedicated to the memory of her late husband, Dr. Murray Gelman, and in recognition of their joint legacy of education, Anna Gelman, M.P.H., has decided to endow a professorship in public health, the Anna Cheskis Gelman and Murray Charles Gelman Professorship in Public Health (Epidemiology). “The extent of Anna Gelman’s devotion to the School, her self-described family, simultaneously evokes an ineffable humility and enormous pride,” said CSPH Dean Allan Rosenfield, M.D., in making the announcement.

One of a small and highly select group of women to graduate with a Master of Public Health degree from Massachusetts institute of Technology in 1934, Professor Gelman, a Hunter College graduate, distinguished herself as an epidemiologist, researcher and in unending service to the School of Public Health. A native Bostonian, she spent the early part of her professional career in the former U.S.S.R., researching genetics at the institute of Genetics with Dr. Herman J. Muller in the Academy of Sciences in 1934, followed by three years of medical and experimental parasitology at the All-Union institute of Experimental Medicine in Moscow with the founder of medical geography, Dr. Eugene N. Pavlovsky.

In more than 50 years with the Columbia School of Public Health, Professor Gelman, a member of Sigma Xi, has served as research assistant, instructor, assistant professor, acting head of epidemiology, director of student affairs, editor of the first alumni directory, and as a founder of both the alumni and student government associations. today, to keep up with the students, she volunteers in the office of student services and on the admissions committee. “Anna has never lost her very personal concern for applicants and students,” points out associate Dean for Student Affairs William Van Wie, Ph.D. “She is an articulate and enthusiastic advocate, who shares with faculty and staff her insights into the motivations and aspirations of many of the individuals drawn to study here.”

Making it official: Anna Gelman signs off on endowment. Lending a hand are her attorney, Alan Prigal (left), and CSPH Dean Allan Rosenfield, M.D.

This is not the first time Professor Gelman has established an academic honor. The Anna C. Gelman Award for Excellence in Epidemiology has been bestowed on students in the Division for several years for their academic distinction and potential for significant contributions to the field of public health.

“The prettiest and peppiest epidemiologist,” according to former student and colleague Dr. Elinor “Fuzzy” Downs, Professor Gelman was considered one of the most understanding members of the faculty. The Gelmans frequently hosted parties for students in their apartment or in the basement auditorium of 600 West 168th Street. She continues to hear from her former students the world over, and, at 86, she still loves teaching. You can catch her course for senior citizens, “You and Your Health,” on Sunday mornings at one of the senior centers.

The Gelmans, partners in life and in their dedication to education, were married for 51 years. A physics and science teacher as well as guidance counselor, the late Murray Gelman, Ed.D., Columbia Teachers College, ’50, a graduate of townsend Harris High School, was appointed by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930’s to be an education advisor to the Civilian Conservation Corps. A retired World War II U.S. Army major, active in the Empire Chapter of Disabled officers association and the Society of Military Engineers, he was listed in Who’s Who in American Education and was a member of the honor societies Kappa Delta Pi and Phi Delta Kappa.

Dean Emeritus Robert Weiss, M.D., observes that he was “not able to foresee this latest dimension of the Gelman legacy, a legacy that will benefit future generations of students. I presented Anna an award in 1981, saying, ‘You have made the students and graduates of this School your children. Their accomplishment and special contributions to society are a small measure of your capacity to stimulate and set a model for achievement. No greater legacy can be left by a teacher to society.’ Unbeknownst to me was the magnitude of her commitment to her future ‘children,’ the students of Columbia School of Public Health.”

To hear Professor Gelman tell it, her teaching career was launched when “the war caused a shortage of teachers , so the young research assistant took over some classes.” Her teaching had a far reach. Not only did public health scholars come through her courses but students of hospital adminis-tration, medicine, nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy and nutrition. They came from Teachers College, and the schools of Architecture and Journalism for courses and an understanding of the cornerstone of public health practice, epidemiology. Students from more than 60 countries attended her classes and enriched the curriculum by sharing their knowledge of international health problems.

“I sat here at 168th Street and the world came to me and I had an impact. and I knew when the international students went home, a part of me went too,” says Professor Gelman. to this day, when CSPH alumni from a third world nation get together, they talk of Anna Gelman, explaining, “Her door was always open.”

Among her many cherished notes from alumni, one student from the Caribbean wrote, “I will remember you as a good teacher, as someone who knows her profession very well but that is not enough: I will remember you as somebody with characteristics that are not given by degrees; nor by formal education, neither by scholar status: life experience and great human qualities.”

And from a graduate returning to a third world country, “...thank you for your constant assistance, interest, and concern, and for the kind words given to us on the night of our graduation. It is the kind of inspiration that is desperately needed by a poor man from a poor country who is striving to find his place under the sun.”

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