LOS ANGELES (AP) – Dr. Sherman Mellinkoff, who took the newly created School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles and turned it into a powerhouse of medical research and academics, has died at age 96.
Mellinkoff died July 17 at his home near the Westwood campus, UCLA said in a statement.
He took over the school in 1962, when it was just a decade old and did not yet have its own buildings. He led it for 25 years – a marathon term for a medical school dean. Under his direction it grew from a few dozen students to classes of 1,500 interns, residents and fellows.
Mellinkoff helped establish multiple organ transplant programs, a comprehensive cancer center and one of the first federally funded centers for research in positron emission tomography, or PET scans.
Those who worked under him said he was a beloved and generous leader for whom no project was too quirky when he saw its merits.