Feature Story

In Memoriam
Harold E. ‘Jack’ Resinger, MD

1924–2003

June 2003

Former CAP governor Harold E. “Jack” Resinger, MD, died April 7. He was 78.

“He brought immense enjoyment to those privileged to associate with him,” says former CAP president Thomas P. Wood, MD. “He was truly insightful and helped many other pathologists through excellent educational efforts with the CAP.”

Dr. Resinger, a past president of the American Pathology Foundation, was a governor of the College from 1973 to 1979. “For a number of years he was one of the foremost independent laboratorians in the country,” says William B. Zeiler, MD, also a former CAP president.

In 1970 Dr. Resinger cofounded International Clinical Laboratories. “Jack was among the first to develop an entrepreneurial service offering services to multiple physicians and hospitals in an extended geography,” Dr. Zeiler says. In a 1985 interview with the College for its archives, former CAP governor Phillips L. Gausewitz, MD, recalled that while Medicare regulations at the time prohibited independent laboratories within hospitals, “I remember Jack saying, ‘I’m going to have one.’ And somehow or another he did it.” Dr. Resinger chaired the ICL board for many years. The company was sold to Smith-Kline Beecham Corp. in 1988.

Dr. Resinger retired in 1988 as chair of the board of directors of Pathology Associates PSC, Lexington, Ky. From 1968 to 1984 he was chair of the board of directors of Resinger, Wallace, and Geoghegan PSC. Dr. Resinger had also served as chief pathologist at Good Samaritan Hospital and visiting associate professor of clinical pathology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, both in Lexington.

Dr. Resinger received his B.A. and B.S. from the University of North Dakota, which named its medical school’s media center after him, and his M.D. from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1943 to 1946.

Among his colleagues, Dr. Resinger was known as “a delightful conversationalist and accomplished musician,” says Dr. Wood. For many years Dr. Resinger was band leader, clarinetist, and saxophonist for the Lexington dance band Men of Note. Dr. Zeiler remembers performing with Dr. Resinger at CAP parties for outgoing presidents. “He was one of the best clarinetists in the country,” he says. “We had a great time.”

Dr. Resinger is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; sons James, John, Paul, David, and Jack; daughters Kelly and Nancy; stepdaughters Cathy and Susannah; 12 grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.