Dear Colleagues,

I received word today that our colleague Dr. Charles “Chuck” Winans died on June 7. It appears that he passed away in his sleep after a short illness. Dr. Winans has a long history of clinical distinction at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Winans was born on August 9, 1935. He attended Haverford College and then Western Reserve University for medical school (now Case Western), graduating in 1961. His internal medicine training was at the University Hospitals of Cleveland, and GI and research fellowship was at Boston University. He then served admirably in the United States Navy and achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander, and was Chief of Gastroenterology of the United States Naval Hospital in Portsmouth Virginia from 1966-68.

In July, 1968, he joined the University of Chicago as an Instructor in Medicine, then relieving Dr. Walter Palmer, who immediately left for vacation. Dr. Winans describing walking in and “within minutes assuming responsibility for a 20+ bed GI service with a resident who had not seen clinical service for 5 years while working on a PhD, and an intern who was missing so many fingers he couldn’t start IVs.” Dr. Winans remained at the University of Chicago for the rest of his career, rising to the rank of the Sara and Harold Lincoln Thompson Professor, a chair he held from 1987 to 2008 (including during his emeritus status). He was Co-Director of the Section of Gastroenterology from 1980-1986. Through the years, he was awarded numerous accolades for his teaching and for the care of the patient, including the AGA Distinguished Clinical Award in 2003.

In his departure letter to Stephen Hanauer in 2008, Dr. Winans mentioned that “what attracted [him] to medicine in the first place in the 1950s was caring for patients in a scholarly setting where [he] could apply the new knowledge of modern medicine to the benefit of the human condition.”

Dr. Winans was a doctor’s doctor, and a superb diagnostician, and his expertise and focus was on the upper GI tract, especially the esophagus. [...]

Those of us who knew Dr. Winans remember his exceptional attention to detail [...] and his dedication to the patient. He taught me how to perform upper endoscopy, and I think of him every time I intubate, and for sure every time I write the report and comment on the “distance from the incisors”. His patients loved him to the point of still calling Leslie Mote (who worked as his tireless assistant and shared the pic) as recently as last week to check on how his team was faring during the pandemic. His colleagues appreciated him as a wonderful member of the faculty, and, as his former assistant Annette Westerberg said “always a gentleman”. His generations of students will continue his legacy of outstanding patient care “to the benefit of the human condition”, just as Dr. Winans would have instructed us to do.

Sincerely,

David

David T. Rubin, MD

Professor of Medicine

University of Chicago