Fall/Winter 2006 - University of Rochester Medical Center

worried about the impact of the large debt
faced by most medical students today. So he
added significantly to his contribution to the
Scholarship Initiative
Glen H. Kumasaka, M.D. (M’55), recently
donated $25,000 to the Initiative to launch
a family scholarship that he hopes will grow.
“Rochester has been such a great place
for me and my family,” said the retired radiologist,
who lives in Ann Arbor, Mich.
That’s a remarkable assessment for
Kumasaka, who arrived in the city of
Rochester in 1945 in the wake of a tragedy
for his family — their internment in the Tule
Lake Camp in California during World War II.
Kumasaka grew up in Tacoma, Wash., where
his family operated a fruit and flower market.
But after the start of the war, the government
swept Japanese-Americans into camps,
opening Tule Lake in May 1942.
The government finally released the families
from the Tule Lake camp after the war
ended. Kumasaka’s father, who stressed
education to his children, chose Rochester on
the advice of a counselor who recommended
the University’s Eastman School of Music for
his daughter, Kumasaka’s older sister who
was a pianist and singer. When they arrived
in the Rochester area, there was only one
other Japanese family.
The sister graduated from Eastman. And
Kumasaka graduated from Rochester’s East
High School and then Harvard University
before returning to Rochester and the School
of Medicine. He remembers the welcome
given to his class by the then dean, George
Hoyt Whipple.
“He told us he knew we could do the job
and that he expected everyone to be good
physicians. He said the School invested in us
to become caring physicians,” said Kumasaka,
who received a scholarship to attend the
School. “No one has such a warm memory
of their medical school as I do. It is one of the
greatest schools in the country. I feel so gratified
and proud of going through Rochester.”
Continued on page 69
New research development
fund honors Engel
The University of Rochester Medical Center’s
Department of Psychiatry has launched a fund
to honor the work of George L. Engel, M.D.,
whose biopsychosocial medical model influenced
generations of physicians.
Engel, a professor of medicine and psychiatry
who joined the Rochester faculty in 1946,
published an article in the journal Science
in which he detailed his concept of the
biosychosocial model and challenged the
traditional model, writing “the traditional
model leaves no room within its framework
for the social, psychological, and behavioral
dimensions of illness.” He died in 1999.
The Department of Psychiatry is establishing
the fund to foster the efforts of faculty
members throughout the University of
Rochester Medical Center during the early
stages of their careers. It will provide money
for innovative pilot research efforts. The
target areas are:
George L. Engel, M.D.
• Theoretically driven research that seeks to
understand the integrated effects of life
events and personal characteristics on human
development, biological systems and mechanisms
of action, and disease expression or
the promotion of health.
• Theoretically driven research that uses
innovative, multidisciplinary methods to
design, implement, and evaluate new strategies
for preventing or ameliorating mental
distress and disorders based upon current
understanding of how psychological, biological,
family, social, economic, and cultural risk
and protective factors apparently contribute
to health and illness.
The fund will distribute grants on an
annual basis. Pilot projects supported by the
fund are expected to lead to additional peerreviewed
research endeavors.
For more information on the George L.
Engel Research Development Fund, contact
Amy N. Bouchard, chief development officer
for the Department of Psychiatry at 585-273-
5935 or abouchard@admin.rochester.edu.
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