Robert George Dluhy MD

Robert George Dluhy, MD, a devoted physician, humanitarian, and academic scientist passed
away peacefully on May 25, 2022, in Boston, MA, He was 85.
Born in Passaic, NJ, son of the late Leona Fila and John George Dluhy, he earned his BA degree
in Biology from Princeton University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude. He
received his medical and research training at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1962,
followed by his internal medicine residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, currently known
as Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and his clinical and research fellowship in endocrinology
under Dr. George W. Thorn (1962-1970). His training was interrupted for two-years while he
served as a physician in the US Army in Germany. 
Following his fellowship, Bob joined the faculty in the Endocrine Division at the Peter Bent
Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he spent his entire 52-year academic
career. He rose through the ranks at Harvard Medical School to become a Professor of Medicine
in 1998 and served as the Associate Chief and Clinical Director of the Endocrine Division for
nearly 30 years. Bob Dluhy was a physician’s physician, a naturalist, a creative scientist, and a
civil rights leader. Throughout his life, he was governed by a relentless desire advance health and
well-being.
While Bob was among the last general endocrinologists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, his
research career was quite specifically focused on genetics and the adrenal gland. Over two-thirds
of his 146 peer reviewed publications were related to these areas. His interest in genetics began
shortly after he became a faculty member, co-authoring an article in 1975 that described a new
genetically determined hemoglobin—hemoglobin Cranston. As was true for many of Bob’s
scientific achievements, this report was the product of his brilliant skills as a clinician,
recognizing a unique clinical feature, and developing collaborations and resources to identify the
cause. This approach to research is best illustrated by his contributions to understanding of
glucocorticoid-remedial aldosteronism (GRA). In the early 1990s, several patients in a family
that had this unique, rare form of hypertension and hyperaldosteronism were referred to Bob. At
the time, he was the Director of the Endocrine Division’s fellowship program. One of his
mentees was Richard Lifton, MD, PhD, a skilled molecular biologist. Together, they discovered
the genetic basis of this rare disease. Their publication in Science in 1992 in many respects
launched the field of the genetic underpinnings of hormonal mechanisms of hypertension to
which Bob made substantial contributions over the next 20 years.
In the 1980s, Bob wrote a series of publications that provided the fundamental basis for how
aldosterone is normally regulated in humans and how its dysregulation in several endocrine
diseases contributes to their pathophysiology. His passion to uncover and elucidate crucial
knowledge allowed Bob to refine diagnostic tools that examine the adrenal gland, improving the

accuracy and specificity of such tools in the process. Most critically, Bob Dluhy had a
remarkable

and incalculable impact on the health outcomes of these patients and all those under his care.
The countless fellows and students whom Bob mentored invariably considered him their friend,
colleague and role model. His memorable traits are reflected in those whom he taught and are
appreciated not only by his mentees but by the patients they treat and the colleagues with whom
they work. While Director of the Endocrinology Training Program, he developed a travel and
resource fund for the fellows through donations from many grateful patients. For nearly 30 years,
he served as chair of the Financial Aid Committee at Harvard Medical School where he strongly
advocated for new programs to reduce medical student debt. In many regards, this work was the
foundation and genesis for diversity and inclusion before the development of such formal
policies at the medical school. Additionally, he used his roles as Associate Editor at The Journal
of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (1985 -2000), Associate Editor at The New England
Journal of Medicine (2001-2014), and Section Editor at Current Opinion in Endocrinology
(2001-2020) to help educate these trainees in the art and science of medical writing and its
importance in the advancement of clinical excellence.
Humor was an inextricable part of Bob’s character, shown most playfully at the December
Division Parties, one year even playing the role of a member of the guitar playing “Roaches”—a
spoof on the Beatles. Beyond knowledge and critical thinking, Bob taught fellows and students
how to be caring humanitarians and analytical, compassionate physicians, an example that he set
in his clinical practice. Ultimately, he never forgot that outstanding patient care is the centerpiece
of medicine and healing.
For his many contributions, Bob received numerous public honors: including but not limited to
the Hoechst Marion Roussel Hypertension Mentor Award from the Council for High Blood
Pressure of the American Heart Association (1997); an inaugural membership in the Academy at
Harvard Medical School; the Distinguished Physician Award of the Endocrine Society in 2014;
and the Special Faculty Prize for Sustained Excellence in Teaching by the Program in Medical
Education at Harvard Medical School in 2016. As Bob often said, the reward that meant the most
was seeing the growth and development of those he had the privilege to mentor and care for over
the years.
After Bob retired from his administrative responsibilities at Harvard Medical School and
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, he continued to maintain a meaningful clinical practice and
became engaged in another area: work in civil rights to further health equity in the United States.
He often stated that he viewed the people of this country collectively as his patients, under a
broad theoretical framework. In 2015, Bob and his daughter, Leonore, began creating the first
bill to establish a statutory right to emergency medical care for persons in police contact. In
2019, they founded the Medical Civil Rights Initiative to support and to develop this act and a
subsequent legislative endeavor, which would establish similar rights and duties for those
presumed innocent who are detained in carceral institutions. Under their leadership, their first
effort, entitled the Medical Civil Rights Act, was filed in multiple states and currently is awaiting
state and federal passage. In 2021, they published a Perspective in The New England Journal of
Medicine about the clinical implications of the statutory gap that this bill seeks to resolve. Just
days before his death, Bob spoke with impacted families who had suffered the deaths of family

members during police contact, and they expressed their profound gratitude for the life-
sustaining impact that this bill would have. So that lives will not continue to be lost, he would
wish that this nation supports the passage of these landmark acts. In his final chapter, he is
remembered by many as a visionary and a civil rights leader.
Bob’s life was enriched by his love for his family, music, travel, and the natural beauty of the
world. June 11, 2022 would have marked his 60th wedding anniversary, and he valued every
moment with his wife, Deborah Haigh Dluhy, and daughter, Leonore Alexandra Dluhy. He
declared the coast of Maine to be both his home and his solace. He routinely fed the birds and
tended to the wildlife, and he loved to walk his dogs on Higgins Beach in Scarborough and in the
Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth.  His spirit remains embedded forever in nature and in
the lives that he so lovingly touched and fostered.
In addition to his wife, Deborah, and daughter, Leonore, Bob leaves an extended family that
includes Gale D’Luhy, wife of his late brother John D’Luhy, and their daughters Amanda
D’Luhy, Pamela Londono, husband Juan Londono and son Fitzwilliam Londono; brother-in-law
Geoffrey Tegnell, wife Kathy Widger, and their daughter Jennifer Tegnell; brother-in-law
Douglas Haigh, wife Sandra Moreno, and their children Evan Haigh and Charlie Haigh; sister-in-
law Jessica Haigh; brother-in-law Alan Haigh, wife Alison Smith, and their daughter Sylvia
Haigh, spouse Jasmin Klinger; sister-in-law Alison Zaino, husband Boniface Zaino, and their
daughter Isabel Zaino.
There will be a celebration of Bob’s life held on May 12, 2023 at 4PM in the Memorial Church
on the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, with reception following the service in Loeb
House at 17 Quincy Street.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts in Bob’s memory be made to either of two causes
that were important to him: Financial Aid at Harvard Medical School or the Fellowship
Program in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, Brigham and Women’s
Hospital.
Gifts for financial aid: checks should be made out to Harvard Medical School and designated to
the Class of 1962 Endowed Scholarship Fund in memory of Dr. Robert G. Dluhy; mailing
address - Alumni Affairs and Development, P.O. Box 419720, Boston, MA 02241-9720.
Gifts to support the Fellowship Program in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and
Hypertension at Brigham and Women’s Hospital should be made out to the Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, with a note that the gift is in support of the Division of
Endocrinology/Fellowship Program; mailing address - Brigham and Women’s Hospital,
Development Office, 116 Huntington Ave, 3 rd floor, Boston, MA 02116.
 

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