HR1177 LRB093 23393 HSS 53425 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the
3 State of Illinois learned with regret of the death of Dr.
4 Stanley Yachnin on Monday, August 30, 2004; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dr. Yachnin was born on June 28, 1930 and raised
6 in Brooklyn, New York in a devout Jewish household; he attended
7 Midwood High School as well as the Yeshiva in the borough's
8 Flatbush district; and
 
9     WHEREAS, From 1947 to 1950, he studied at Cornell
10 University, but without earning a degree; instead of graduating
11 from Cornell, Dr. Yachnin opted to go straight to medical
12 school at New York University, where he earned his medical
13 degree in 1954 and was first in his class; and
 
14     WHEREAS, His residency training was interrupted when he
15 served two years as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps;
16 he was stationed in a small town outside of Paris, where he
17 cared for ailing soldiers, learned French, and cultivated a
18 lifelong interest in wines and food; and
 
19     WHEREAS, Dr. Yachnin met and married his wife, Irene,
20 during his residency; she preceded him in death 1972; and
 
21     WHEREAS, He resumed medical training in 1958, completing
22 his residency and a fellowship in hematology in 1961 at the
23 Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, part of the Harvard
24 system; he became an assistant professor at the University of
25 Chicago in 1961 and spent his entire career there, helping to
26 build a small hematology-oncology section into one of the
27 world's leading clinical cancer research groups; he became
28 section chief of hematology in 1966, a full professor in 1969,
29 and chief of the combined section of hematology and oncology
30 from 1972 to 1982; he retired in 1996, having recruited many

 

 

HR1177 - 2 - LRB093 23393 HSS 53425 r

1 physicians and scientists to the section; he also served as a
2 member and chairman of the university committee that approves
3 faculty appointments and promotions, and from 1988 to 1996
4 directed the Pew program, one of the earliest interdisciplinary
5 graduate programs for students interested in completing both an
6 M.D. and a Ph.D.; and
 
7     WHEREAS, Much of Dr. Yachnin's work concentrated on blood
8 cells and related disorders; during the 1960s, he explored
9 paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare disease that leads
10 to anemia, bleeding in urine while asleep, and potentially
11 deadly blood clots; his 1970s research took him into the
12 biochemistry of lymphocyte transformation, how white blood
13 cells respond to infections; and
 
14     WHEREAS, Inside the laboratory, Dr. Yachnin demanded not
15 only high standards and thorough research from his students and
16 assistants, but also a reverence and exactitude in their use of
17 English in their science; and
 
18     WHEREAS, The passing of Dr. Yachnin has been deeply felt by
19 many, especially his children, Benson (Melinda) Yachnin and
20 Catherine (Addison) Braendel; and his grandchildren Noah,
21 Clea, William Braendel, and Emma Yachnin; therefore, be it
 
22     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
23 NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
24 mourn the passing of Dr. Stanley Yachnin, and we are grateful
25 for the many contributions he made to the medical community and
26 cancer research; and be it further
 
27     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
28 presented to the family of Dr. Yachnin as an expression of our
29 sincerest condolences for their loss.