Robert Silber, M.D. 1931-1998

Vintage Pen Collector-Par Excellence

Among the growing multitude of pen collectors worldwide is a legion of dedicated, highly knowledgeable individuals who are generally little-known outside their immediate circle. They go about their business collecting pens, often with a passionate dedication equal to the most devoted of the well-known collectors. Bob Silber was such an individual.

In the early 1970s he was among the first wave of pen collectors in the U.S. He began collecting principally fine Waterman pens when they were relatively plentiful and inexpensive (see G. Berliner, pg. 17). He regularly frequented the dingy antique shops in New York City on 3rd Avenue and more than occasionally spotted an unusual find with his sharp physician's eye. I know, because I often accompanied him. As a clinical investigator, Bob made frequent trips overseas. On one such trip he found an executive Eversharp skyline which for reasons that he knew better than I, insisted I take for my very own. I still retain this pen and treasure it all the more since his untimely passing last October 1998.

Bob, as he was known to his colleagues, was an extraordinary, sensitive person who was worshipped by his patients and served as a role model for a generation of medical students. Born in Vienna, Austria, he and his family emigrated to the Dominican Republic in 1939 shortly after the Nazi takeover of Vienna, finally settling in the U.S. in 1946. After receiving his M.D. degree from the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center and serving at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, he joined the faculty of the NYU School of Medicine where he led the Hematology Division for 25 years while pursuing his research in leukemia.

Following his retirement from NYU, Bob and his wife Barbara Kahmi Silber relocated to Duke University in Durham where, as surely as cream rises to the top, so did Bob as a teacher, clinician, and scientist.

The pen collecting community around the world, his professional colleagues, a multitude of students, and those of us who cherish him as a dear friend, will miss him, but his memory is deeply ingrained and his teachings and humanistic precepts will live on.

- Fred Gorstein, M.D.