Faculty
In Memoriam
Dr. Esther F. Hays, professor emeritus
in the Department of Medicine and
associate dean emeritus of academic
planning, died June 10, 2021. She
was 94 years old. Dr. Hays conducted
research in hematology and oncology,
with a particular focus on leukemia,
and later in her career on HIV/AIDS. As
associate dean, she served as UCLA's
liaison to the UCR/UCLA Program in
Biomedical Sciences, an innovative
medical-education program, and she
was instrumental in the establishment
of the UCLA AIDS Institute. Upon
her retirement in 1993, the institute
established a fellowship in her name
to support graduate students doing
research in HIV/AIDS.
Dr. George S. Smith (MD ’61, RES ’65),
professor emeritus of pathology, died on
June 17, 2021. He was 85 years old. Dr. Smith
was a lifelong Bruin, earning his BA and
MD degrees and completing his residency
in pathology at UCLA. He joined the UCLA
Department of Pathology as an assistant
professor in 1965 but took a military
leave to join the Atomic Bomb Casualty
Commission in Hiroshima, Japan. Dr.
Smith served as the chief of hematology,
director of the clinical laboratories and the
blood bank, as well as acting and interim
chair of the Department of Pathology and
Laboratory Medicine, from 1989 to 1994,
before retiring in 1999. His pioneering research
in histocompatibility testing led him
to establish the UCLA Blood Bank in 1975.
