Sherwin B. Nuland

Sherwin B. Nuland
Born Shepsel Ber Nudelman
(1930-12-08)December 8, 1930
The Bronx, New York, USA
Died March 3, 2014(2014-03-03) (aged 83)
Hamden, Connecticut, USA
Prostate cancer
Citizenship American
Fields Surgeon, writer, educator
Institutions Yale School of Medicine
Alma mater Bronx High School of Science
New York University
Yale School of Medicine
Known for How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter
Notable awards 1994 National Book Award
Spouse Rhona - divorced
Sarah Peterson (m. 1977)
Children Victoria, Drew, Amelia, and William

Sherwin Bernard Nuland[1] (born Shepsel Ber Nudelman; December 8, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American surgeon and writer who taught bioethics, history of medicine, and medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, and occasionally bioethics and history of medicine at Yale College. His 1994 book How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter was a New York Times Best Seller and won the National Book Award for Nonfiction,[2] as well as being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

In 2011 Nuland was awarded the Jonathan Rhoads Gold Medal of the American Philosophical Society, for “Distinguished Service to Medicine.”[3]

Nuland wrote non-academic articles for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New Republic, Time, and the New York Review of Books. He was a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution.[4]

Biography

Nuland was born Shepsel Ber Nudelman in The Bronx, New York City, on December 8, 1930, to immigrant Ukrainian Jewish parents Meyer and Vitsche Nudelman.[5]

Although raised in a traditional Orthodox Jewish home, he came to consider himself agnostic, but continued to attend synagogue.[6]

Nuland was a graduate of The Bronx High School of Science, New York University and Yale School of Medicine, where he obtained his M.D. degree and also completed a residency in surgery.[5]

At the time of his death, he was living in Connecticut with his second wife, Sarah Nuland (née Peterson). He had four children, two from each marriage. His daughter Victoria Nuland, a career foreign service officer and the former U.S. ambassador to NATO and former spokesperson for the Department of State, was appointed Assistant Secretary, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs in September, 2013.[5]

Dr. Nuland avowed a “unique relationship” with death. The 1994 National Book Award for nonfiction was granted to his How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter.[7]

In a 2001 TED talk, which was released in October 2007, Nuland spoke of his severe depression and obsessive thoughts in the early 1970s, probably caused by his difficult childhood and the dissolution of his first marriage. As drug therapy remained ineffective, a lobotomy was suggested, but his treating resident suggested electroshock therapy instead, which led to his recovery.[8] Twelve years after the talk, TED’s Curator, Chris Anderson, recalled that Nuland's talk “remains one of the most powerful moments in the conference’s history.”[9]

Nuland was also one of the featured lecturers at One Day University.[10]

In 2005, Nuland produced a series of lectures for the Teaching Company’s The Great Courses on the history of Western medicine titled Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography.[11]

Nuland died on March 3, 2014, at his home in Hamden, Connecticut, of prostate cancer.[5]

Books

References

  1. ↑ Yale School of Medicine biography page
  2. ↑ "National Book Awards – 1994". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  3. ↑ "Sherwin Nuland | Branford College". Branford.yalecollege.yale.edu. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  4. ↑ The Hastings Center Hastings Center Fellows. Retrieved 2010-11-06.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Sherwin B. Nuland, ‘How We Die’ Author, Dies at 83. The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-03-04.
  6. ↑ Edward Hendrie, Solving the Mystery of Babylon the Great (Great Mountain, 2011), 148.
  7. ↑ Emily Langer, “Sherwin B. Nuland, surgeon and writer who demystified death, dies at 83” (The Washington Post, March 5, 2014).
  8. ↑ "Sherwin Nuland on Electroshock Therapy". Filmed 2001, posted 2007. Talks. TED: Ideas Worth Sharing. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
  9. ↑ Emily McManus, “Remembering Sherwin Nuland” (TED Blog, March 6, 2014) at http://blog.ted.com/2014/03/06/remembering-sherwin-nuland/.
  10. ↑ "One Day University". Onedayu.com. 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  11. ↑ Archived October 17, 2013, at the Wayback Machine.
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