Arthur K. Asbury, MD, FCPP

By David Woods, PhD, FCPP

Following a stellar career of faculty and hospital appointments and a lengthy list of awards, honors and honorary memberships, multiple publishing positions including that of chief editor of the Annals of neurology, and numerous publications and administrative positions, Art Asbury is what is known in thoroughbred racing circles as a stayer: at 85, he still shows up daily at the University of Pennsylvania as part of a research project exploring genetic factors in diabetes.

Actually, the racing metaphor is quite an appropriate one. His father, a surgeon, bred racehorses in Kentucky, one of which, a colt named Determine, won the Kentucky Derby in 1954. Art recalled that he was so excited he threw his hat in the air and never retrieved it. Later, he too got into breeding thoroughbreds. And, to compound the metaphor, he lived for 20 years in a converted horse barn in Center City before  moving some months ago to a condominium at Naval Square, from where he walks the six blocks to Penn; or, if weather precludes that, he’ll drive there in his trusty ten year old Honda.

Actually, Art is something of a thoroughbred himself, having attended the upscale Phillips Academy in Andover and completing his internship and residency in medicine, neurology and pathology at prestigious Mass General and a teaching fellowship at Harvard. He was chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Neurology… and served as vice dean for research, vice dean for faculty affairs , and for three years as interim dean of that Ivy League University. He also became in 2002 a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London, which required passing a stringent exam. He did manage to get to the races while in the UK, though.

So why did he choose neurology as a specialty? By chance, a friend at the University of Cincinnati, where Art acquired his MD, in 1958, was a classmate who had worked as an EEG  technician When he left that position, took it on full-time for two summers. The research that he did then confirmed his interest in neurology… and getting published in the Annals of Neurology, of which he later became chief editor between 1985 and 1992, cemented that interest. Neurology has changed dramatically during his career, he says. It used to be “in the backyard – a subset of medicine or psychiatry; now it’s a specialty in its own right.”

Among his more than 130 visiting professorships and invited lectureships were the Eric Kukelberg keynote lecture in clinical neurophysiology in Israel and honorary professorships at the teaching hospital at Shijiazhuang and the Hebei medical college in China.

Between 1951 and 1953, Pfc. Asbury saw active service in the US Army reserve at Fort Miley, Texas, where he was an instructor in the Guided Missiles Group.

 Not surprisingly, his biography has appeared in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare, and Who's Who in Education… and the Arthur K. Asbury award for outstanding faculty mentoring is given to a senior faculty member at Penn Medical School annually.

His involvement in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia dates back to 1974. He became president twice––in 1981 and in 2004; he also served as interim CEO while the College was searching for a full-time executive director, eventually appointing Dr George Wohlreich to that position, which Art believes was a very good move, given the poor track record  of a couple of the previous incumbents.

Asked about some current policy issues in healthcare, Art shows his diplomatic skill. Of the Affordable Care Act he believes that it will be okay––if it works. Similarly, of the prospect of a single-payer healthcare delivery system, he says the same thing… but believes it would not be easy to put in place.

Art had three children through his first marriage, which ended in divorce; and in 1980 he married Carolyn Holstein, a Wharton PhD, who commutes daily to the Dana Foundation in New York where she is an adviser on clinical neuroscience research proposals. She leaves by train at  6:45 am and returns in time for dinner at 8. The pair met at a medical conference in New Orleans and, says Art,”I bypassed all the lectures and spent time talking and talking with Carolyn.” Both of them are trustees of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia… and both enjoy the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Phillies baseball, where they have enjoyed season tickets for 30 years. The couple spend two weeks in Maine in the summer.

Asked what he has learned in some 8 decades on this planet, he says that the most important thing is successful interpersonal relationships. “I work at making friends,” he says.

You can reach David Woods at HMI 3000@Comcast.net or on his website at www.Davidwoods.info