July 2020— Gene N. Herbek, MD, CAP president from 2013 to 2015, died June 4 after a brief illness. He was a CAP governor from 1998 to 2004 and secretary-treasurer from 2006 to 2011.
Dr. Herbek was medical director of the Methodist Women’s Hospital laboratory and medical director of transfusion services for The Pathology Center at Methodist Hospital, Omaha, Neb.
He chaired multiple CAP groups over the years, among them the councils on Public Affairs and Membership and Public Affairs and the Finance, Credentials, Nominating, Political Action, and Insurance committees.
“His engagement and passion for pathology, his patients, colleagues, family, and the College were both inspiring and, for many, transformative,” says Thomas Williams, MD, former chair of the pathology department at Methodist, where Dr. Herbek worked since 2004. “‘Patient care first’ was Gene’s principal credo, and likewise, he believed that above all, leaders serve and care for and about those whom they lead.”
One of his greatest passions was to serve as a representative for the CAP and for all pathologists. His advocacy for his profession occasionally made people mistake the native Nebraskan for a politician, Dr. Williams says. “I always relished saying, ‘No, he’s not a politician. He’s a phenomenal pathologist who also engages in leadership and politics.’”
Dr. Herbek understood that making the role of pathologists more visible to policymakers and the general public was essential to helping them understand how he and his colleagues made a difference. Sandra Grear, a former CAP staff member who served as vice president of membership and professional development, recalls Dr. Herbek saying often, “Out of sight, out of mind, out of a job. If they don’t know you’re relevant—how what you do matters to them—why should they care?”
Paul Bachner, MD, immediate past chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Kentucky and former CAP president, served on an education-focused council with Dr. Herbek years ago. “It was really the beginning of education as a freestanding activity for the CAP,” he says. “Gene was one of the leaders in making that happen.”
For many CAP members, it seemed almost inevitable that Dr. Herbek would one day serve as CAP president. He anticipated the role with such conviction that he took a position as a staff pathologist at Methodist Hospital to ensure he would have enough time to devote to the CAP. “They were expecting that he would want to be head of the group,” Grear recalls. “But for him to run for president, he knew it would be important not to be in the catbird seat but instead to be a very loyal soldier.”
When the time came, Dr. Herbek ran unopposed. “No one gave a thought about running against Gene,” says Al Lui, MD, president and medical director of Innovative Pathology Medical Group in Los Angeles. “It was a tribute to the regard in which he was held by everyone.”
And he was “one of the great presidents,” Dr. Bachner says, adding, “I had enormous respect and affection for him.”
Dr. Lui recalls Dr. Herbek’s inaugural speech as incoming president. In it, Dr. Herbek detailed a health scare he had faced, a low-grade leiomyosarcoma detected when he was in college. “That experience fixed him on the idea of being a pathologist,” Dr. Lui says.
It may also explain Dr. Herbek’s dedication to patients. “He welcomed the opportunity to help patients understand what was happening,” Grear says.
“As a pathologist, he was not one who wanted to hide behind the microscope,” says Deborah Perry, MD, medical director of The Pathology Center at Methodist Hospital. “He was out there, talking to the doctors and nurses and patients.” On a return flight to Omaha after a CAP-related trip, he was seated next to a woman who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. “As they got to talking more, Gene realized he had likely read her biopsy,” Dr. Perry recalls. “He invited her to come to the laboratory, and he sat down with her and went over everything. She was so excited to meet her pathologist.”
Dr. Herbek also stood out for his breadth of technical ability. “Gene was, in every way, a pathologist’s pathologist. His competencies were exceptional and broad,” Dr. Williams says. “He did an incredible amount of clinical pathology, as well as really competent anatomic pathology. I don’t know any other single pathologist who could do that.” He was known in the lab for his skills in surgical pathology, cytology, hematology, and the blood bank, among others.
At laboratory picnics. he was famous for donning his own apron and manning the grill. “It was a hot, smoky job, but he loved doing it,” Dr. Williams says.
Dr. Herbek founded the CAP Foundation’s See, Test & Treat program, which has provided free breast and cervical cancer screening to thousands of women across the U.S. since he hosted the first event at Standing Rock Indian Reservation nearly 20 years ago.
Grear attended that inaugural event, and when an older Native American woman approached her to find out why they were there, Dr. Herbek responded. “Gene said, ‘We found out that women in this area are much more at risk for cervical cancer than anywhere else in the whole country, and we wanted to do something about it. We’re here because we care,’” Grear said. “The woman started to cry. She couldn’t believe that Gene was there as a volunteer to help.” It turned out the woman was a tribal elder, and her support for the program helped convince many other women in the tribe to be examined.
See, Test & Treat went on to become a success across the country, and Dr. Herbek continued to serve at-risk patients by hosting more such programs in Omaha.
The Gene and Jean Herbek Humanitarian Award was established in 2011 to recognize pathologist leaders who have made innovative and unique contributions to advance the program. It is named in honor of Dr. Herbek’s service and that of his wife, Jean, who carries on his commitment to the cause.
Dr. Herbek had come to Methodist Hospital from Sioux City, Iowa, where he began working at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center in the early 1980s. In 1989, when United flight 232 crashed nearby, Dr. Herbek “was the coroner’s pathologist who first responded to the crash,” Dr. Williams says. “He was kind of horrified as he drove to the scene, not knowing what he was going to find.” In fewer than five days, he and colleagues would direct the recovery of and perform autopsies on 111 bodies.
He spoke to CAP TODAY after the crash about his work’s emotional aspect. “I wasn’t prepared for it,” he said. “One of the things I didn’t know until now is that you have to expect to feel this developing grief and work on in spite of it. And you have to expect that eventually it will hit you and it will take several days—or more—for you to go through the full process of grief—the same process the victims’ families are going through.”
At six feet four inches tall, Dr. Herbek towered over most others, but even so, “people tended to underestimate Gene because he was unassuming,” Grear says. “Then all of a sudden, people would realize there’s a lot here. He had a quiet, gentle competence about him.”
He also brought out the best in others. “Gene was the real deal,” says Grear. “He demanded more of himself than of others. He inspired us to do better and be better people.”
Dr. Herbek won the Pathologist of the Year Award in 2016, the William L. Kuehn, PhD, Outstanding Communicator Award in 2005, and the CAP Foundation Lansky Award in 1996.
Dr. Herbek said that his roles as husband to his wife and as father to his two daughters were the most important in his life. In an award acceptance speech he gave in 2016, Dr. Herbek said he had been “uncommonly blessed” with his family and career: “Without their love, support, and patience, I would not have been able to engage so fully as a CAP member.”
He is survived by his wife and daughters and a granddaughter.
Donations to See, Test & Treat in Dr. Herbek’s memory can be made at www.justgiving.com/campaign/herbek.
—Meredith Salisbury