Virgil Loeb Jr., M.D., professor emeritus of clinical medicine died at his home Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2004, from complications of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
Loeb was a hematologist and medical oncologist and, beginning in 1979, a member of the board of directors of the American Cancer Society. He served as that organization’s national president in 1986-87. He also was a founding member of the community advisory board for the Siteman Cancer Center.
“Bud Loeb was instrumental in laying the foundation for the National Cancer Institute designation that the Siteman Cancer Center ultimately received,” said Timothy J. Eberlein, M.D., director of the Siteman Cancer Center, Bixby Professor and head of the Department of Surgery and Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor at Washington University School of Medicine. “He was a giant, a terrific human being and doctor who really made possible the care we now can offer to cancer patients.”
Loeb is a graduate of John Burroughs School. He attended Swarthmore college and later graduated from Washington University School of Medicine where he trained under Carl V. Moore, M.D. After his graduation in 1944, Loeb served overseas as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He began his lifetime interest and distinguished career in hematology and medical oncology after returning home.
He was an attending physician and/or consultant in hematology/medical oncology at Barnes Hospital, The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, St. Luke’s Hospital, St. John’s Mercy Medical Center and the Veterans Administration Medical Center.
Loeb served the National Cancer Institute as member of the Southeastern Cancer Study Group, Cancer Clinical Investigation Review Committee, Diagnostic Research Advisory Group and other study groups. Between 1970 and 1983, he was appointed a liaison member of the National Cancer Advisory Board from the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He also served as a liaison member from the American College of Physicians to the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons and the American Joint Committee on Cancer.
His first wife, Lenore Harlow Loeb, died in 1987
He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth; daughters Katherine Doumas and Elizabeth McCane; sons David and Mark; his sister Virginia Deutch; stepchildren Virginia Moore, Jane Moore, Patrick Moore and William Moore; and eight grandchildren.
Memorial contributions may be made to the research department in Hematology and Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine or to John Burroughs School, 755 S. Price Road, St. Louis, MO, 63124.