Johns Hopkins Gazette: February 12, 1996


Obituary:
Arthur Siebens, 74, Remembered For Patient Care, "Inner Fire"


     Arthur A. Siebens, professor emeritus and former director of
Rehabilitation Medicine at Hopkins and Good Samaritan hospitals,
died Jan. 28 after a short illness. He was 74.

     Siebens is remembered as an accomplished physician, an
innovative scientist and a man of varied professional and
personal interests, all of which he pursued with vigor. He was an
avid sailor, choral singer, builder of wooden clocks and a  BMW
motorcycle enthusiast who often rode his motorcycle to the
hospitals until becoming ill in December.

     "He was a colorful, outspoken fellow, all right," said
Richard Ross, School of Medicine dean emeritus and professor
emeritus. "Arthur's most admirable trait was his willingness to
apply basic science to rehabilitation medicine. ... He always was
of good spirit and had an inner fire and strength that he
transmitted to patients."

     "Patients really loved Art." said William H. Zinkham,
Distinguished Service Professor of Pediatrics at Hopkins. "He was
always seeking new answers. He was all for the patient."

     Born in Atlanta, Siebens spent much of his childhood in
France. He entered the Hopkins School of Medicine during World
War II, graduating in 1947 with honors and returned to the Navy
from 1952 to 1954 as part of a cardiopulmonary research team that
established one of the first cardiac catheterization laboratories
in the country.

     After teaching physiology at the Long Island College of
Medicine and State University of New York Medical Center at
Brooklyn from 1948 to 1958, he went to the University of
Wisconsin to work with polio patients. There he established a
department of rehabilitation medicine. 

     In 1970, he became professor of rehabilitation medicine and
surgery at Hopkins and established the Department of
Rehabilitation Medicine there and at Good Samaritan Hospital.

     Siebens retired from Hopkins in 1995 and became director of
pharyngology rehabilitation and research at the Greater Baltimore
Medical Center. 

     A public memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. on March 8
in the Turner Auditorium on the East Baltimore campus. Memorial
donations may be sent to the Arthur A. Siebens Memorial Fund,
Fund for Johns Hopkins Medicine, 1620 McElderry St., Reed Hall,
Baltimore, Md. 21205.

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