A. Bernard Ackerman ’58

Bernie came to Princeton from Phillips Academy, Andover. He was president of Orange Key and treasurer of the class our senior year. He majored in religion and literature and was a member of Tiger Inn.

He earned a medical degree at Columbia and taught at the University of Miami, NYU, and Thomas Jefferson University.

He trained a generation of doctors to use a diagnostic method he developed that viewed skin tissue at low magnification. He authored more than 700 papers and 60 books and founded two dermatopathology journals.

Bernie held strong opinions and did not hesitate to make them known. Medical ethics and the relationship between culture and medicine were two of his passions. He recently created an endowment at Harvard for the study of culture and medicine.

Bernie used the terminology of the microscope to describe himself: dogmatic and unyielding at scanning magnification, reasonable and accommodating at high power, and humane and empathic up close.

The class expresses its deepest sympathy to his brother, James; his sister, Susan Zwick; and his nephews and niece.