HISTORICAL FACULTY HIGHLIGHT

Dr. Harry M. Rose and His Legacy

On July 1, 1975, the University Trustees of Columbia bestowed upon Dr. Harry M. Rose, former Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology, the distinction of John E. Borne Professor Emeritus of Medical and Surgical Research, stating, “...you are officially a permanent member of the Columbia community, even though in retirement.” Dr. Rose spent more than half of his life in the service of Columbia University, and he is fondly remembered for his exceptional teaching, excellence in research, and important contributions to clinical medicine. 

“Dr. Harry Rose placed great emphasis on teaching, and memorized the name and face of every graduate and medical student in his classes, even for large classes with over 100 students.”

Background
Harry M. Rose was born May 30, 1906 in Niles, Ohio. As a young man, Rose attended Yale University. He went on to medical school at Cornell University Medical College, and received his medical degree in 1932. Dr. Rose came to Presbyterian Hospital as an intern in 1938 and received his first faculty appointment at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1940 as an Assistant in Medicine, assigned to Bacteriology. With the outbreak of World War II, he also served as secretary of the Medical Division of the Society of American Bacteriologists and a member of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. During this time, he performed research on tropical diseases for the United States government.

In 1952, Harry M. Rose was appointed as John E. Borne Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. At the time, it was known as the Department of Bacteriology, but Rose changed the name to the Department of Microbiology, to better encompass the other research taking place in the department.

Teaching
Dr. Rose placed great emphasis on teaching, and memorized the name and face of every graduate and medical student in his classes, even for large classes with over 100 students. As a result, he was fondly remembered by many of his former students. Dr. Rose trained and inspired a generation of doctors and scientists. His own son, Stuart Rose, both attended his Microbiology class and followed in his footsteps into medicine. The late Dr. Bernard Erlanger affectionately recounted the following anecdote about the exceptional father and son, “Dr. Stuart Rose took Microbiology here at P&S when his father was Chairman. We had to ask Harry Rose to leave the conference room before we could give Stuart his grade for the course!”

Research
Dr. Rose was also an accomplished researcher, and is best known for developing the first reliable test for rheumatoid arthritis, which became known as the Rose-Waaler or Waaler-Rose test, since it was independently developed by both Rose and the Norwegian bacteriologist, Erik Waaler. In 1948, Dr. Rose conducted tests on the blood of patients with rickettsialpox, and noticed that blood from a patient that also had rheumatoid arthritis caused an agglutination reaction in which cells mixed in from sheep’s blood clumped together.  In collaboration with Dr. Charles Ragan, Rose applied the test to blood from a large number of rheumatoid arthritis patients, and found that the agglutination reaction had predictive value in diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis. These findings led to the creation of a diagnostic test for rheumatoid arthritis that was 90% accurate. At the time, this test was considered the first and only practical laboratory test that allowed for diagnostic differentiation of rheumatoid arthritis from other diseases. It was later shown that the autoantibody known as rheumatoid factor was responsible for the agglutination reaction detected by the Rose-Waaler test, and that this factor contributed to the generation of immune complexes, thereby contributing to disease.  

In addition to his work on rheumatoid arthritis, Dr. Rose carried out pioneering studies in antibiotic mechanisms and virology, and made great contributions to the development of the influenza vaccine. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Immunology, and was a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Medical Association, as well as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Rose’s contributions to research and medicine were recognized by the Gairdner International Award, an Award of Distinction from Cornell University, the Gorgas Medal, and the Squibb Award from the Infectious Disease Society. 

Family and Children
On top of his impressive professional life, Rose had a thriving family life with 3 children. His son, Dr. Stuart Rose, continued his father’s legacy of excellence in medicine, and is now an authority in the field of travel medicine. He is the author of the International Travel Health Guide, a comprehensive resource for travelers, founder of Travel Medicine, Inc., which is a company that specializes in products and information for travelers, and founder and Medical Director of the Travel Medicine Center of Western Massachusetts. He is also an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Tufts University, a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, a member of the International Society of Travel Medicine, and an attending physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Noble Hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts. As the saying goes, the apple does not fall far from the tree.  

Retirement
After over 30 years of service as a faculty member, of which over 20 were as Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Harry Rose retired on June 30, 1973 and moved to New Hampshire. Remarkably, after retiring from Columbia University, Dr. Rose recertified as a Diplomate in Internal Medicine and continued to practice medicine by maintaining his own practice in Sandwich, NH, and working on the medical staff of the Lakes Region General Hospital in Laconia, NH and Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, NH until 1984. He also served as chair of the medical committee in Sandwich, NH, as well as the Carroll County Coroner for several years. 

Despite the various phases of his long and active career, Dr. Rose placed special importance on his extensive time at Columbia. In his resignation letter, written on April 6, 1973 to the then Dean, Paul A. Marks, Dr. Rose eloquently wrote, “I have spent more than half my life in this place. Certainly the better half...The associations and friendships I have made here have had a vital effect on me...For this I want to express my most profound appreciation to you and to the host of other people who have made this great institution what it is, and who have given happiness and inspiration to me.” Dr. Rose reciprocally inspired the students and colleagues around him. 

The Harry M. Rose Memorial Lecture
After his death on November 4, 1986, the Department of Microbiology & Immunology established the Harry M. Rose Memorial Lecture in Infectious Diseases with the Department of Medicine. This was made possible by donations from many of Dr. Rose’s former students and colleagues, and by the generous assistance of the family of Dr. Rose. From the first lecture by Dr. J.A. Levy in 1988 to the most recent lecture by Dr. Vishva Dixit in 2018, over 20 lectures from renowned infectious disease researchers, including three Nobel laureates, have been given to honor Dr. Rose for his contributions to scientific research, medicine, and education.