Roger Alan Brumback, 65, of Omaha, Neb., was tragically killed in May 2013, in Omaha, Neb., along with his beloved wife, Mary Helen. Roger Brumback was born Feb. 15, 1948, in Washington, D.C., to Frances and Oscar Brumback and later grew up in Monroeville, where he lettered in swimming at Gateway Senior High School. After school, Roger could be found delivering the Pittsburgh Press or mowing lawns in the neighborhood. During his leisure, Roger enjoyed playing chess and tennis with his friends. After earning his diploma in 1965, he attended Pennsylvania State University, where, after a combination of advance placement credits, a heavy course load and year-round attendance, he earned, in only two years, a Bachelor of Science in pre-med and met his future wife, Mary Skinner, who was studying pharmacology. Thus at age 19, Roger was accepted into and became the youngest member of the inaugural class at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey. After medical school graduation in 1971, Dr. Brumback served as a pediatric resident at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore for two years, followed by additional training in pediatric neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and did his residency at Barnes Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital. In lieu of the draft, Roger, as a medical student, obtained a military deferment through the Public Health Service, which allowed Roger to serve between 1975 and 1977 as a clinical associate in clinical and experimental neurology, neuropathology and clinical neurophysiology with the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Md. After a brief private practice in neurology in Pittsburgh, Roger took a position as Chief of the Neurology Service at the Fargo, N.D. Veterans Affairs Medical Center and also was member of the faculty of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine Department of Neuroscience. Roger continued his thirst for knowledge by completing his pathology residency and neuropathology fellowship at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1986. Dr. Brumback was recruited to the University of Oklahoma. In 1997, he was named a David Ross Boyd Professor in honor of his teaching excellence. In Oklahoma, Roger established a clinical and research program in Alzheimer disease and the Oklahoma Alzheimer's Association created the Brumback Award to recognize individuals who made outstanding contributions to Alzheimer disease research. In 2001, Roger was appointed professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at Creighton University School of Medicine, a post he held until 2010. A scholar of the first order, Roger Brumback loved books; reading, writing and collecting them. Counting multiple editions, Dr. Brumback wrote, edited or coauthored at least 19 books on an amazingly wide range of topics and over 130 articles published in numerous medical journals. Most remarkable of all for a neuropathologist, was a series of books and articles on psychiatry and developmental cognitive disorders and two books about Alzheimer disease that are written as guides for families and care givers. In 1986, when Dr. Brumback began his first year as a pathology resident, he founded the Journal of Child Neurology and remained its editor-in-chief until his death. Additionally, in 2011, Dr. Brumback became the editor of the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. While still a medical school student, Roger studied the chromosomal structure of the owl monkey as a thesis project and determined that there are several owl monkey species, which led his project sponsor to later have one of the new owl monkey species named Aotus brumbacki. Among other honors, Dr. Brumback was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and the Creighton University chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society. He received the 2011 Warren Weinberg Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Learning Disabilities from the Learning Disabilities Association of Texas. Dr. Brumback was elected president of both the Society for Experimental Neuropathology and the Behavioral Neurology Society. Roger Brumback was named the 2001 Alumni Fellow of the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, the highest honor given by the Pennsylvania State University Alumni Association. Outside of his medical research, Roger had many diverse interests such as being a ham radio operator, doing genealogy research and even square dancing with his wife, Mary. He especially enjoyed traveling and exploring the world with his wife, Mary, at his side. Roger was preceded in death by his father, Oscar B. Brumback.

(Pittsburgh Tribune Review 6/20/2013)