Introduction given by Robert P. Roca, MD, MPH
[Fall 2003; Vol. 30, No. 1; Pg 4]
We established the Lifetime of Service Award in 1999 to recognize and celebrate the achievements of Maryland psychiatrists who, over the course of their careers, have made extraordinary contributions to the welfare of our patients and of our profession through the MPS. Our first three honorees have been Tom Allen, Lex Smith and Jonas Rappeport, all remarkable people and inspiring colleagues who set the bar very high. This year the Council had no trouble finding an MPS member with the stature to get over the bar. The 2003 honoree is Dr. Bruce Hershfield.
Just about everyone knows Dr. Hershfield. For those who don't, he is a boy from the Bronx who trained in psychiatry at UNC, where he was chief resident. He came to Maryland in 1974 to take a job at Sheppard Pratt and remained for six years. From 1980 to 1986, he was the Medical Director of Highland Health Facility, a small state hospital on the grounds of the old Baltimore City Hospital. He went on to serve as Superintendent of Springfield State Hospital in 1986 and remained there until 1993, when he left the public sector to go into fulltime private practice. He now lives on a farm in Sparks with his wife, Fran. Their two sons, Daniel and Jonathan, live in Los Angeles.
My earliest memories of Bruce go back to the mid-1980 ' s. I remember him from Highland Health Facility, where I did some moonlighting, and I recall visiting him at his farm in Sparks soon after he and his family moved there. I was struck by his intellect, by his openness to experience, by his willingness to speak plainly. I was also impressed by his honesty, industry, and modesty, and by his impatience with people lacking these qualities.
All of these qualities-all these virtues-have been manifest in his decades of work with MPS. Bruce's record of service includes a long stretch as editor of the Maryland Psychiatrist (83-91). He was President in 1991-1992, then MPS representative to the Assembly from 1993-2001. In 2001 he was elected Area 3 Deputy Representative to the Assembly's Executive Committee. In these various roles, Bruce has been a perennial presence at MPS Council meetings, where he is a source of perspective and a repository of institutional memory. He has also been an invaluable advisor to generations of MPS presidents.
Bruce, as I prepared to present you with this award, I meditated on the question of your place in the pantheon of MPS Lifetime of Service award honorees. You certainly resemble the others in your legacy of service, your exemplary citizenship and your faithfulness to the Hippocratic tradition. But you are also distinctive. Certain obvious features stand out. You are taller than any previous honoree. You also have more hair. For some deeper thoughts on this question I contacted previous honorees, and they had some interesting observations. They mentioned your skills in agriculture; they wondered at the adaptation made by a New Yorker to life on the farm, an adaptation made easier, no doubt, by your wife's training in botany. They mentioned your facility with languages; they marveled at your proficiency in Spanish and Portuguese. Tom was very impressed (as am I) that you have read Don Quixote in the original Spanish, and he remarked that he felt that this accomplishment prepared you particularly well for a number of the gallant (but apparently futile) efforts the two of you made in the APA Assembly.
But your idealism is only half of the story. Your accomplishments show that you also know how to get things done. You have an outstanding record of service, and the MPS would not be what it is today without you. On behalf of MPS, thanks from all of us, and congratulations on being selected as the fourth recipient of the Lifetime of Service Award.