Tom Lansdale lived to be a Krok. He said as much, in a pent-up blurt as we walked to Adams House after a brutal final callback in the spring of 1974. We were both gobsmacked by just how much we wanted to be in the group. At the time, Tom was the very model of a Harvard History and Lit major, suitably khakied and deeply involved in research on his literary hero, Thomas Wolfe. But behind the measured, courtly cadences of a Maryland miller’s son were deep and quixotic passions. One day during his junior year he claimed he’d had a change of heart and wanted to be a doctor, and could I, a biochem major, teach him the Krebs Cycle? I remember cracking up. You’re a JUNIOR, man. Have you taken chem 20? No. Biology? Biochem? Calc? No, no, no. But it was something he was going to do, even if he had to take courses all through the summer. Which he did.

Tom was not accepted into even one medical school his senior year. So he took more summer courses, worked in a lab, and spent a fifth year at Harvard, before Case Western finally gave him a yes. He became as much a doc’s doc as he was a Krok’s Krok. After a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, he was recruited to one of the country’s first general medicine and primary care training programs at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Under his leadership, it became the largest program of its kind, pioneering the field of primary care in academia and beyond. He was then recruited to chair the Department of Medicine at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, where he improved the standard of care, strengthened the residency program, and oversaw the development of Gilchrist, a leading center in palliative and hospice care. He was a leader of Healthcare for the Homeless in Baltimore, one of the nation’s original and best programs to provide vital, humane services with the goal of eliminating homelessness with a holistic strategy. Honored for his teaching nationally and regionally, he taught and mentored generations of physicians and structured an innovative medical practice to give patients the time and the services they needed. In his later years, he became a palliative and hospice care physician. He lent his rich baritone to several choirs, including the Baltimore Symphony chorus.

Sometime in his forties, Tom was diagnosed with a rare heart irregularity that required a stent in a difficult place. When his body rejected it, requiring another stent to be put over it, Tom asked what would happen if the second one failed. “You’re dead,” the doctor replied. “We don’t do three.” It did fail, and they inserted a third. And then a fourth and a fifth. And a pacemaker. Over several years Tom suffered atrial fibrillations that required painful surgical ablations. With each ablation, each new stent, Tom’s optimism flagged. He would say discreet good-byes as his friends and family held our breaths. Each time, that big heart came through against phenomenal odds. He was honest about the pain, not afraid to share his fears with friends, but still ready to burst out laughing at a good (or not so good) joke and still dedicated to a punishing work schedule and a steady stream of patients. He sang with the Baltimore Symphony, read like a fiend, raised bees and made honey for his patients, and stayed close with his old friends.

He left us just short of his 65th birthday. In the end, Tom’s heart had withstood the years of battle. His cause of death was a sneaking brain cancer. He left a grieving daughter, Olivia, a sister and two brothers and their families, and scores of devastated friends and patients.

At his service, nearly a score of his Krok cohort sang.

Tom was a stalwart, enthusiastic presence in our 1970s Krok gatherings. He often said his Krok pals were as close to him as his own brothers. We never forgot that walk after final callback that started our friendship. And he never stopped thanking me for teaching him the Krebs Cycle, and for not dissuading his sudden transition to medicine from history and lit. During a rehearsal break the summer before he passed, he admitted he’d gone back and read Thomas Wolfe’s novels. Shaking his head, he said, “They’re terrible! What was I thinking?” Since college, through change and through storm, he had become the man he was meant to be. But that feeling of camaraderie, that beautiful ensconcement of music and friendship and shared experiences—that never changed. Over Tom’s impossibly difficult, impossibly fruitful life, it only got stronger. His warmth, his musicality, his strength, and his brotherhood remain in our hearts and always will..

Peter Lerangis ‘77

Obituary for  Tom Lansdale M.D.

THOMAS FRANKLIN LANSDALE, III, M.D.
March 1, 1954 – January 15, 2019

Dr. Thomas F. Lansdale, 64, of Baltimore, Maryland died peacefully on the morning of January 15, 2019 at Montgomery Hospice Casey House in Rockville, Maryland, with his daughter, Olivia, by his side. The cause was brain cancer. The eldest son of Thomas Franklin Lansdale and Patricia B. Lansdale-Rice in Sandy Spring, Maryland, he is survived by his mother, Patricia, his three siblings, Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Richard Hyatt Lansdale (Jessica Moore Lansdale), James Page Lansdale (Lyn Camp Lansdale), as well as his beloved daughter, Olivia Margaret Lansdale, and nieces and nephews. His marriage to Jennifer Gallagher ended in divorce. Dr. Lansdale attended Glenelg Country School, Mercersburg Academy, Harvard University, and Case Western Reserve Medical School. After his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, he was recruited to one of the country’s first general medicine and primary care training programs at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Under his leadership, it became the largest program of its kind, pioneering the field of primary care in academia and beyond. He was then recruited to chair the Department of Medicine at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, where he revolutionized the standard of care, strengthened the residency program, and oversaw the development of Gilchrist, a leading center in palliative and hospice care. Honored for his teaching nationally and regionally, he taught and mentored generations of physicians – many of whom have become leaders in American medicine. In 2005, he started an innovative medical practice to give patients the time and the services they needed, and in recent years, he became a palliative and hospice care physician. He also continued his decade-long leadership in Healthcare for the Homeless in Baltimore, one of the nation’s original and premier programs to provide vital, humane services with the goal of eliminating homelessness with a holistic strategy. Dr. Lansdale was a “doctor’s doctor.” He ministered to people from every ethnicity, socioeconomic background, and walk of life, and he was especially sought out by countless physicians and other healthcare professionals. He was a healer in the largest sense, was devoted to his patients, with extraordinary bedside warmth and presence, remembered details of his patients’ lives, was there in good times and bad, dispensed “Dr. Tom’s own honey” and his homemade soup, uplifted and comforted families at times of loss, and attended their family events and their funerals. Dr. Lansdale’s other passions included fishing for bass and bluegill, cooking for friends and family, bee keeping, golf, and classical music. He sang in various choirs and chorales over the course of his life and was particularly devoted to decades of singing with his college a capella group, the Harvard Krokodiloes. All who accompanied him in these endeavors will remember him for his grace, wit, and wisdom. He will be dearly missed. A service to celebrate his life will be held on Saturday, February 9th at 11:00 a.m. at the Mercersburg Academy chapel in Mercersburg, PA. Contributions may be made to a scholarship in his name to: The Mercersburg Academy, 300 East Seminary Street, Mercersburg, PA 17236. Contributions may also be made to the organization he loved: Healthcare for the Homeless, 421 Fallsway, Baltimore, MD 21202. Please view and sign the family guest book at: www.PumphreyFuneralHome.com

-Published by The Washington Post on Jan. 21, 2019.

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/thomas-lansdale-obituary?id=1774060