Diana Schultz Beardsley *76

Diana Beardsley, associate professor of pediatric hematology/oncology at Yale Medical School, died March 30, 2010, at age 62, after a brief illness.

Beardsley graduated from Valparaiso University in 1969. She then earned a master’s degree in 1971 and a Ph.D. in 1976, both in chemistry from Princeton. Also in 1976, she earned a medical degree from Duke Medical School (while completing her doctoral dissertation for Princeton). After interning and a three-year fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology, she was an instructor at Harvard from 1981 to 1986, holding clinical positions at Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

After starting at Yale in 1986, Beardsley built a nationally recognized program in coagulopathies and platelet disorders. She was one of the first scientists to apply modern techniques of immunology and molecular biology toward furthering the understanding of immune-related platelet destruction syndromes.

She was a physician whose commitment to her patients was featured in The Gift of Experience: Conversations about Hemophilia, a 2008 book by Laura Gray and Christine Chamberlain. Among innumerable other professional activities, she was an associate editor of the Journal of Hematology.

At the time of her death, Beardsley was survived by her son, Christopher Beardsley, who referred to her as “an extraordinary mother and physician.” She was married to G. Peter Beardsley *71.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.