University Times

Pitt emeritus faculty member Richard H. Michaels, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases and a long-time associate of Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, died Feb. 22, 2011, of complications from pneumonia. He was 83 and had been in declining health.

Michaels was raised in Canton, N.Y., where he received his undergraduate degree from St. Lawrence University. He completed his medical degree and pediatric specialty training at Columbia.

Michaels joined the Pitt faculty in the medical school’s Department of Pediatrics and the medical staff at Children’s in 1961, following a fellowship in virology and infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital Research Foundation in Cincinnati, where he trained under Albert Sabin when Sabin was working on an oral polio vaccine.

A former chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children’s, Michaels’s 34-year affiliation with the hospital included chairing the infection control and the human rights committees and serving as associate medical director for many years.

Supported by National Institutes of Health funding, Michaels conducted studies examining antiviral activity in human milk, the immuno-paresis of congenital rubella and the potentiation of Haemophilus influenza infection by respiratory viruses.

In his retirement, Michaels returned to Children’s Hospital as a volunteer greeter at the pediatric intensive care unit until he physically was no longer able to get to the hospital.

Two of Michaels’s Pitt medical school and Children’s Hospital colleagues, Marian G. Michaels (no relation), professor of pediatrics and surgery, and Michael D. Green, professor of pediatrics, surgery and clinical and translational science, remembered Michaels as devoted to patient care, research and teaching.

“Richard Michaels dedicated his career and life to the children of Pittsburgh,” said his colleagues in a prepared statement.

“He was one of the leaders of the Pittsburgh vaccine campaigns in the 1960s and ’70s. He made major contributions in understanding Haemophilus influenza infection in children long before the vaccine was available,” the professors said.

“In addition, Dr. Michaels was a wonderful mentor — kind, caring and a staunch supporter of patient rights and social responsibility. Throughout his career and into his retirement, he remained the epitome of a professor by continuing to attend conferences and working with medical students. For those of us who knew him, Dr. Michaels was a tremendous role model and we are grateful for having had him as a friend, colleague and teacher.”

Michaels also served as co-director of the Pittsburgh-West Africa medical scientist summer exchange program, which promoted medical education and research between students and faculty from Pitt and the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, in Benin City, Nigeria.

He was well-known locally as a social activist and peace advocate. Michaels helped establish and later co-chaired the first local chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), a medical and public health group seeking to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

Michaels gave talks on nuclear non-proliferation to high school students and community groups until he was in his late 70s. He also was faculty adviser to a PSR student chapter at Pitt.

He was certified in pediatrics by the American Board of Pediatrics.

Michaels was an active member for many years of the First Unitarian Church in Shadyside.

He is survived by his wife, Christine Doreian Michaels; three sons, Stephen Christian-Michaels, Scott Michaels and Hugh Michaels; a daughter, Karen Gentile; a stepdaughter, Leeza Doreian; a stepson, Fracka Future, and eight grandchildren.

—Peter Hart