Stanford lost an excellent teacher, anatomist, and physician earlier this week, and all the students are pretty shaken up about it. Dr. Larry Mathers died at his home on Wednesday night. He was one of our three anatomy professors.

I never really realized how much we all bonded over anatomy class–it’s an experience in its own right, but one that the class experiences together. Everyone is present for the class, and we all process it at the same time. Passing the final is probably one of the first big accomplishments of medical school. As you get older in medical school, everyone has different attendings–often your friends will have never met the attending you had, but every single student knew Dr. Mathers.

His primary work was as a NICU attending, but he also found time to teach us anatomy. He would always have little tidbits of information you couldn’t find in a medical textbook that made the anatomy more interesting and more relevant. His one-liners during class were the driest, funniest bits that would send the entire class into a belly laugh (I’m trying to find a clip). He was also the man who really set the tone for the class. I remember the very first day him discussing the fact that it was okay to joke and laugh while in anatomy lab, but to always respect those people who donated their bodies so that we could learn from them. We then paused for a moment of silence. We did the same a few weeks later on the anniversary of 9/11.

Here’s a photo of him judging our annual Anatomy Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest:

And another of the Anatomy professor team on a trip we took to the wine country (I was lucky enough to be chosen as an Anatomy TA my second year) (from left to right, Ian Whitmore, John Gosling, Larry Mathers, and John Dolph):

Dr. Mathers was also an incredible jazz pianist, and would often be found playing in the atrium of the hospital for the patients. It always warmed the sterile walls when he played, and patients would gather around with their immunocompromise-masks or IV poles in their robes or pajamas to hear him play.

You will be so very missed, Dr. Mathers, and anatomy will never be the same without you.

Update: Stanford has put together a nice article about him as well as a guestbook to sign.

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