February 14, 2008
Ronald Lemire, professor of pediatrics: 1933-2008
Dr. Ronald Lemire, a longtime UW faculty member, Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center physician and administrator, died Feb. 4. He was 74. Lemire was a UW professor of pediatrics in the Division of Genetics and Developmental Medicine, and served as director of inpatient services at Children’s.
He served on the UW faculty for more than 40 years, and was one of the founders of the WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) regional medical education program, which provides training for physicians in the Pacific Northwest.
“Ronald Lemire was a UW institution, and an outstanding teacher, mentor, advisor, and friend,” said Dr. F. Bruder Stapleton, UW professor and chair of pediatrics and chief academic officer at Children’s.
“He had a profound impact on the health of children in the Northwest, and played a huge role in the education of the region’s physicians,” said Dr. Paul Ramsey, dean of the UW School of Medicine.
Lemire served in the U.S. Navy before coming to the UW to earn his undergraduate and medical degrees. He completed his internship at Haborview Medical Center and his pediatrics residency at the UW. He served as chief resident at Children’s, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in embryologyteratology and neuroembryologyneuropathology at the UW.
Lemire joined the UW faculty as an instructor in 1967, and attained the rank of full professor by 1977.
He served in several leadership positions at the UW and Children’s, including director of the pediatric residency program, director of the pediatric WWAMI regional medical education program, and acting chair of the Department of Pediatrics.
He was a leader in the field of teratology, the study of disfiguring birth defects, and authored many books and articles in his career as a researcher.
