Dr. Christian Herrmann, Jr., professor emeritus of neurology, died October 23, 2017. He was 96 years old. He entered medical school in 1941, and during World War II, he served at the Naval Medical Center San Diego. He came to UCLA in 1954 as the second faculty member in the Division of Neurology. As assistant professor of medicine in neurology, he was responsible for teaching as well as running a number of specialty clinics. He retired as professor emeritus in 1986 but continued to come to campus to do credentialing and to share his knowledge with the department’s trainees.
Dr. W. Eugene Stern, founding chief of neurosurgery and former chair of surgery at UCLA, died on July 27, 2017. He was 97 years old. Dr. Stern joined the UCLA faculty in 1952 as chief of the Division of Neurosurgery in the new Department of Surgery and held that position until 1985. During his tenure, Dr. Stern established neurosurgical affiliations with the Wadsworth (now Greater Los Angeles) Veterans Administration Medical Center and with Harbor General Hospital (now Harbor-UCLA Medical Center), and he elevated the neurosurgery faculty and residency program to national prominence. The W. Eugene Stern Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery was named in his honor. In addition, he was chair of the Department of Surgery from 1981 to 1987.