John “Jack” Schumann was already a tenure-track professor of biology at Gannon University when his department chair assigned him to teach human anatomy.
At first, he kept just one chapter ahead of his students. As he grew to love the work — his own PhD was in morphology — he began post-graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, starting with gross anatomy, taught by Sandra Murray, a Pitt professor of cell biology. He would become the School of Medicine’s director of medical anatomy from 1998–2020. He also taught head and neck anatomy at the School of Dental Medicine.
Schumann died Oct. 9, 2025, at 73.
During his time on Pitt’s faculty, Schumann won 12 Excellence in Education Awards. He also received the Kenneth E. Schuit Master Educator Award, the Sheldon Adler Award for Innovation in Medical Education and the Golden Apple Award. In 2017, he was recognized with the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
“He was a teacher’s teacher,” Murray said.
Schumann prized his work with students, said his widow, linguist Maria Pimentel-Schumann. He spoke only English — she speaks French, Italian and Spanish, as well — yet he coached his first-year medical students to mastery of the 6,000 terms that comprise the vocabulary of the human body.
“He loved his students, just loved his work — that was his passion,” she said. “He wanted to make sure that all of his students passed, and he would work with them personally.”
Longtime colleague Mark Mooney, now a professor emeritus of oral and craniofacial sciences in the School of Dental Medicine, said anatomy can be an overwhelming rite of passage and credits Schumann with offering an antidote. “Jack kept them motivated, tried to make it fun learning.”
For years, the pair played a theme song as students arrived for each exam — for instance, the Doors’ “The End” (for the final) and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” (to keep things upbeat). For the extremities exam, Schumann included an outsized bone from a gorilla’s hand — not for credit, just for fun. “Most of them got it right,” Mooney said. “Jack liked to challenge them with stuff they hadn’t seen.”
Schumann also made sure his students saw as much as possible, in three dimensions and in real time. He collaborated closely with the teams responsible for renovations to the Scaife Hall anatomy lab and campaigned for state-of-the-art technology to broadcast dissections of a single cadaver for students throughout the lab to see in high fidelity. He also created a video library of his own dissections for use as student study tools.
“We had a love of anatomy, an appreciation of the human body, amazement at how it all works,” Mooney said. “We liked to pass that amazement on to students.”
Memorial contributions can be made to the UPMC Hillman Cancer Center to benefit cancer research at hillman.upmc.com/difference/supporting/make-a-gift or UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, c/o UPMC Cancer Pavilion, Suite 1B, 5150 Center Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15232.
— Sharon Tregaskis, Pitt Med Magazine