CAP TODAY Pathology/Laboratory Medicine/Laboratory Management
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.
Dr. Herbek
“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.