Dear Bert,
I have heard that you are retiring and I am sure you are very
capable of going another decade if you wish.
I would like to tell you that I am so grateful to have you as my
mentor and I learned so much from you. You have been so much
more than a teacher for us.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom you shared and setting a great
example of leadership. Your passion to hematopathology had
been contagious to many of us all and I would always appreciate
your patience and support.
Serhan Alkan, MD
Professor of Pathology
Bert:
I can’t adequately express my appreciation for all you have taught me in my formative years as a resident and fellow. I am proud to be a product of your fellowship program and part of the history and tradition of hematopathology at the University of Michigan. You have left a lasting legacy over the many decades of your tenure and your “progeny” are spread around the country. Many are training the next generation, influenced by you. You should be very proud. I wish you and your wife all the best in the next phase of your life!!! Please be well.
Dear Bert,
Thank you for being such a wonderful teacher and role model. One can only hope to have a
career as successful as yours and to have the impact you have had in our chosen field of
hematopathology. I think about all the careers you have helped shape and influence, including
my own, every time I read or hear about the accomplishments of your past trainees. We will do
our best carry on your legacy.
With deep respect,
Ric Valdez
Dear Bert,
Thank you so much for your instruction and mentorship during my fellowship, and for your long and storied service to the Department. Yours is the voice I hear in my head when looking at lymphomas ("Too many B cells!") to this day.
One fond and funny memory that I have relates to your "file system" in the cabinets outside your office in the Hematopathology suite. I think we can both agree that your office was always "pleasantly cluttered" in a manner suitable to a great academic mind. I remember one day you were looking for something - I think it might have been a copy of a paper - that you wanted to show me. We looked in your office, sifting through a few stacks of things on your desk. You said "Maybe it's in my files," and proceeded to walk out into the suite to one of the filing cabinets. You gave me a bit of a sly sideways glance as you opened the drawer...where there were exactly the same sort of piles of paper that were on your desk, without a file folder in sight! Being a proponent of precisely the same sort of "system" in my work, I still think of that almost every time I open one of the drawers in my office.
I've no doubt that I'll continue to hear your voice whenever I encounter anything hematolymphoid, which is something that I'll continue to treasure.
Ajay Rawal:
It is hard to narrow down all that I learnt from him in just a year. The most important thing would probably be how to balance intellectual curiosity and academic rigor with realistic pragmatism of what your report means for the patient and the clinician. I have many fond memories (“For crying out loud!”) and can’t thank him enough for his kindness and all that he taught me. Please convey my best wishes to Dr. Schnitzer and his family.
Dear Bert:
In addition to training with you as a resident and fellow, I have had the great
who knew that would not be the case! Charlie is the only former fellow who had the good fortune of working with you longer than I have.
The way you approached your career is an excellent example to the rest of us. You genuinely love lymph nodes and your enthusiasm is infectious. I knew if you hadn’t seen it, it probably didn’t exist—-but you were always humble and inquisitive and loved to learn new things.
I would see you head towards the coffee cart in the morning and I would flag you down to look at any manner of interesting or challenging case. Luckily I spared you some of the painful bone marrows! But lymph nodes are our shared love and you were my go-to consultant. The first year that I was practicing I was so bogged down that you even did most of my consults for me. After that, you probably looked at almost all of them for the first few years. You wrote a chapter for us in order to help advance my career and you offered me my first paying gig as a regional lecturer in Saginaw (my first extramural talk). I loved sharing my slides with you for talks I was preparing and you always helped me make my presentations better and provided lots of encouragement.
I loved hearing about your life and many adventures outside of work. Your athletic feats always blew me away and I would brag about your accomplishments in that arena as if they were my own: high school hockey star, marathoner, and even occasional ultramarathoner. Your runs with Lee Bollinger to Dexter and back in the afternoons were legendary in my mind. One of the young heme-onc fellows told me that all the swimmers (of all ages) were intimidated by your physique and
athleticism at the YMCA when they would see you at your morning swim. I loved getting to know Anna and seeing what a lovely couple you are.
You will always be my number one consultant. I hope that you realize how important you are to me.
Best,
Tove Isaacson:
himself with so much underlying dignity and grace. The most animate I have every seen him express any displeasure would be the occasional “it’s ridiculous!” exclamation to punctuate a comment (I am, alas, prone to more colorful language at times). Bert is truly one of my most favorite people in the world and I am so grateful to have had the chance to train with him during my fellowship. He contributed so much to the department over the years and he will surely be missed at UMich.
I had the great privilege of training with Bert Schnitzer during my hematopathology
fellowship at Michigan in 2007-8. In addition to being a wonderful person, he is an
excellent pathologist with a humble, thorough approach to hematopathology that I still
try to model today. His teaching at the microscope came with many pearls of
wisdom--some I have managed to retain and still call upon today. Earlier this week at signout, I
was passing along something to my fellows that Bert had taught me when I was a
fellow. This is not an isolated occurrence, as I have referred to his teaching many
times. He also gave an excellent lecture on reactive lymph nodes. I took notes on this
piece of yellow notebook paper. To this day, I keep it handy in a file and pull it out on
occasion to help deal with monocytoid B-cell proliferations, possible toxoplasmosis, etc.
When considering Bert's career, it's amazing to think about the incredible impact he's
had on hematopathology practice through the many fellows who have had to
opportunity to train with him. I am very proud to count myself among them.
Rodney R. Miles, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology
Bryan Coffing:
I will always be grateful to Dr. Schnitzer for his teaching on non-neoplastic lymph nodes. It is
Bert:
You taught me "not to call an effaced lymph node, benign "or " not to call a lymph node
syphilitic anytime I see a couple of plasma cells" and many other valuable lessons regarding
lymph node pathology. But, the thing I learned from you that I value most, is to advance
through career with humility and grace. And to not let my ego prevent me from making the
best diagnosis for my patients.
I wish you the best in your retirement!
All the best,
Amir Behdad
Elena Ivan:
I have heard about Dr. Schnitzer early on in my training when I become interested in hematopathology. I knew about his contributions in the field and about his vast experience and when I first met him I was impressed he was so humble, modest, and non judgmental. You did not feel inhibited asking him when you did not know something, and even when you made mistakes, he would calmly explain and advise you how to solve them.
I remember seeing him many times at the multiheaded microscope surrounded by residents who were bringing him interesting hemepath cases they had collected during the week before, to ask him questions and learn from his vast experience. He was always interested in seeing unusual/ “cool” cases and because of this and of his wise approach, he was very sought out when hard/complex cases were encountered.
He taught us to carefully look at the morphology, this still being very helpful even in the modern times of personalized medicine driven by next generation sequencing studies, and consider all the possibilities without jumping too early to conclusions.
Dr. Schnitzer was always so nice with everyone. I don`t think I ever saw him upset- maybe a few times when I heard him saying: Oh rats…
I also remember his winter trips to Nice and his stories about that. Still have on my wish list to see Negresco hotel there…
I feel very thankful that I got to meet and learn from Dr. Bertram Schnitzer. Wishing him all the best in his retirement.
Pawel Mroz:
I have tremendously enjoyed working and signing out with Dr. Schnitzer. He has always been
very kind whenever we were both on service. He was like a magnet for all unusual cases with
atypical presentations. The other thing I always associate with Dr. Schnitzer is the word “terrific”
and it’s been absolutely terrific to work with him.
Bert:
Thank you for all that you’ve done! For sharing your tremendous knowledge and expertise with all of us trainees over the years!
I will never forget your lectures on the reactive lymph node, and thank you for sharing your microscopy photos so that I may share them with the Beaumont pathology residents!
Enjoy your well-deserved retirement! May you have many blessings ahead! Elizabeth Wey
Hematopathology Fellow 2011 - 2012
Bert:
the time that I’d straggle in around 8, you would already have exercised more that morning than I would in an entire week!
While I did not have the good fortune of formally training with you, I cannot overstate how much I learned from you when I liberally consulted you on lymph nodes that I was struggling with. (I also appreciated that you would always comment that the case was unusual or challenging, even though I am fairly sure that many were not all that difficult to you. This helped my fragile ego immensely.) I will always remember your patience and willingness to spend time looking at any case that I asked of you, and I try to model this behavior with my junior colleagues.
In addition to your impressive diagnostic skills and scientific achievements, your wonderful personality is what I remember most fondly. I recall splitting a taxi with you and Anna from the airport to a USCAP meeting and being delighted by stories of your travels and family. Your presence always brightened the mood in the hematopathology suite, and when you were away vacationing somewhere nice (Nice?), your absence was felt. You are
respected and beloved by administrative assistants, trainees, faculty, and everyone else who worked with you, and I simply could not have asked for a better colleague. I have a yellow button-down shirt that I wear with some regularity (though not necessarily every Thursday), and every time I put it on, I think of you and smile. You are truly one of the leaders and best, and you will be missed dearly at U-M.
Sincerely,
Dear Bert,
Thanks for being a wonderful model in character, integrity and professionalism. Best wishes for
a fun-filled and enjoyable retirement.
Sarah Choi:
When I first started as an attending, there was a period of time, that maybe everyone goes through, where I had the palpable sensation of being the lowest person on the totem pole. Then one day when I was feeling a bit dispensable, Dr. Schnitzer had a case of classical Hodgkin lymphoma, nothing fancy, and asked me my opinion about it. I had the sneaking suspicion he did it to make me feel welcomed as part of the team and make me feel valued, and I have to say it worked. It was a very kind gesture on his part and came at just the right time. I was very grateful.
Dear Dr. Schnitzer,
Thank you so much for meeting with our class early in the mornings to give us lymphoma
lectures. You took so much time, energy, and enthusiasm to teach us and we did our best to
soak up every last pearl of wisdom you were kind enough to share! It was always a joy seeing
you, hearing about your outdoor fitness activities which put our own to shame, and your
travels. I hope you get to spend more time in Nice during your retirement. Thank you again for
sharing your true passion for hematopathology with our class. All the best.
While he taught me many things about hematopathology, I often find myself
thinking of him when I get an interesting case that really challenges me. I
remember Dr. Schnitzer’s excitement whenever we were looking at a unique or
challenging case. When an H&E slide or immunostain showed either an interesting
or “classic” finding, I remember him saying “would you look at that!” I would often
glance over to see a big grin on his face as he looked into the scope. I think his
excitement for pathology, never ending intrigue in working up cases, and overall
approach to the daily practice of pathology was most influential to me. He helped
me to see the enjoyment that one can gain from the work we do on a daily basis,
and to not take for granted the intriguing and interesting questions that we get to
answer. This lesson is by far the most meaningful, and it is the one I am most
grateful for.
Send Bert my best!
Vivian Hatuc:
Bert:
When one has been around as long as you and, to a much lesser extent, me one sees much change. You no doubt remember when there was no Hematology training program, only a Hematopathologist who made house calls when a colleague on general surgical pathology sign-out had a question. You remember a time when the Hematology laboratory did high volume blood counts, diffs and body fluid analyses and not much else. You helped that laboratory take on layer after layer of new technology as it became the consolidated enterprise it is today. You presided over the creation of a genuine Hematopathology training program and educated a growing number of young people who have gone on to do great things, some in our own Department! You have always been interested in how new technologies can assist diagnostic accuracy and reproducibility in Hematopathology
Michigan, and, most importantly, on generations of students, residents, fellows and colleagues who owe you much and remember you will fondness.
All the best,
Lloyd Stoolman
Dr. Schnitzer, it was a tremendous honor learning from such a legendary contributor to the field
of hematopathology over the last couple of years. Your diagnostic skills and teaching acumen
were unparalleled. I can't thank you enough for sharing your wisdom and friendship. As much
as I enjoyed learning from you, I enjoyed our conversations equally so. It has been great getting
to know more about you and your family. I hope we can stay in touch and when you visit your
family in Milwaukee I expect to hear from you so we can get together. Congratulations on such
an amazing career!