Stephen Mathes
Stephen Mathes, MD, professor emeritus in the UCSF Department of Surgery and a pioneer in reconstructive surgery, died on Nov. 20, 2007, after a long and valiant battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease).
A longtime member of the UCSF faculty, Mathes was a towering figure in 20th century plastic and reconstructive surgery. He was a role model, educator, mentor and a gifted surgeon. Mathes will be remembered by his many friends and those he trained as brilliant, creative, supportive, energetic, lively and fun-loving.
"Dr. Mathes was a respected leader in plastic and reconstructive surgery who made seminal contributions to the field of plastic surgery," said Nancy Ascher, MD, PhD, professor and chair of the UCSF Department of Surgery. "He has had a profound influence on his many trainees, colleagues, patients and on UCSF as a whole.
"UCSF and the plastic and reconstructive surgery community have lost a leader, innovator, mentor and compassionate human being," she said.
Born in 1943 and raised in New Orleans, Mathes attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and obtained his medical degree at LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. While in Baton Rouge, he played for the LSU tennis team; tennis remained his favorite sport, and he enjoyed many matches with colleagues and friends throughout his career.
From 1970 to 1972, Mathes served as a major in the US Army Medical Corps and was assistant chief of surgery at Fort Polk Army Hospital in southwest Louisiana, where he treated soldiers from his home state who had been wounded in Vietnam.
Mathes then completed general surgery and plastic surgery training at Emory University in Atlanta. Driven by his experience working as a surgeon at Fort Polk, he developed a laboratory to explore the anatomy and develop new ways to do reconstructive plastic surgery. These anatomical preparations and his subsequent publications were to become the source of the musculocutaneous flaps soon to be taught and adopted nationally and internationally for the coverage of previously untreatable wounds.
Mathes chose an academic career in surgery and in 1977 published his first textbook, titled
Clinical Atlas of Muscle and Musculocutaneous Flaps. This text showed the vascular anatomy of flaps throughout the body and demonstrated how to move healthy tissue as needed to various sites. In 1978, Mathes moved to San Francisco to join the faculty at UCSF.
At UCSF, he was involved in basic science and clinical research that was supported by the National Institutes of Health and other grants. More than 42 research fellows from the United States, Europe and Asia were supervised in his laboratory or on clinical projects as the basic science work done in the laboratory was successfully applied by plastic surgeons around the world to treat deformities and wounds.
In 1984, Mathes became professor of surgery at UCSF, and in 1985, he became head of the Division of Plastic Surgery and residency program director. During his 26 years on the faculty at UCSF, 62 residents completed their plastic surgery training.
Mathes has received numerous awards recognizing his basic science and clinical research. These include six first prize awards from the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation, extending from 1981 to 1999. Other awards include the Special Achievement Award from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and Best Medical Book Award from the American Medical Writers Association.
Mathes was a member of 32 national and international professional societies. He served as chairman of the Plastic Surgery Research Council, director of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, chair of the Residency Review Committee for Plastic Surgery, president of the Association of Academic Chairmen in Plastic Surgery, president of the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation and trustee for the American Association of Plastic Surgeons.
Mathes published more than 233 peer-reviewed papers and chapters as well as six books, including the eight-volume edition of Plastic Surgery published in 2006. He was a visiting professor in more than 25 countries, delivered more than 400 formal lectures and participated in symposia throughout the world.
He is survived by his loving family, who will miss him greatly. They include his wife, Mary H. McGrath, MD, a plastic surgeon practicing at UCSF; his mother, Norma D. Mathes, of Cookson, OK; his sons David W. Mathes, MD, and wife, Amanda, of Seattle, WA, Brian A. Mathes and wife, Vaso, and their two children, Zoe and Norah, of Boston MA, and Edward J. Mathes and wife, Erin Mathes, MD, of San Francisco; his two brothers, Paul Mathes of New Orleans, LA, and Peter Mathes of Cookson, OK.
A memorial service will be held on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008, at 4 p.m. in Toland Hall at UCSF's Parnassus Heights campus. A reception will follow. The family requests that all donations in memory of Mathes be made to the Stephen J. Mathes Endowed Chair Fund at UCSF Foundation, P.O. Box 45339, San Francisco, CA, 94145-0339. This fund will be the first endowment within the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and will serve as a lasting tribute to Mathes' contribution to plastic surgery here at UCSF.
RSVP to Regan Botsford, Department of Surgery director of development, by Monday, Jan. 21, for the memorial service and reception. She can also provide you with additional information on how to make a gift to the endowed fund in his honor. Botsford can be reached by phone at 415/502-1573 or by
email.
