Obituaries

Ronald Elmer Batt, an internationally recognized physician, clinical researcher, medical historian and clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UB, died April 25 in his Lancaster home after a brief illness. He was 83.

Batt was in private practice in Buffalo from 1970-90, specializing in the treatment of endometriosis and infertility, teaching residents and UB medical students, and taking an active role in research. He joined the full-time faculty at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 1995.

He was known nationally and internationally for his work on endometriosis and its pathophysiology, and for developing his theory of developmental müllerian diseases, or müllerianosis.

Batt also conducted countless personal interviews of faculty and staff from 1972-2002, creating a valuable recorded history of the UB medical school.

A Buffalo native, Batt attended Niagara University and the UB medical school, graduating in 1958. He then served as a research fellow in reproductive endocrinology at Harvard Medical School, assistant-in-surgery at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston and as a clinical fellow at the Mayo Clinic.

He served as a lieutenant in the Navy Medical Corps from 1960-62.

In 1968, he became a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Canada.

After retiring from clinical practice, he pursued his interest in history and completed a PhD in the subject in 2009. His thesis research became the book “The History of Endometriosis,” which was published in 2013. At the time of his death, Batt was working on the second volume of this book.