This article is from the archives of the UB Reporter.
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Published: April 24, 2008

Norman Chassin, emeritus medical school faculty

Norman Chassin, clinical associate professor emeritus in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and former chief of internal medicine at Kenmore Mercy Hospital, died April 15 in Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital. He was 87.

Born in Buffalo, Chassin earned a bachelor’s degree from UB in 1942 and a degree from the UB medical school in 1945.

He maintained a practice in internal medicine in Kenmore from 1951 to 1975 and during that time served on the staff at Kenmore Mercy, where he also was chairman of the Internship Program and the Institutional Ethics Committee.

Chassin began teaching in the UB medical school in 1951 and was co-director of the program in bioethics and humanities from 1977 to 2000. He was instrumental in establishing the medical ethics program at the school and, as president in the UB Medical Alumni Association, was particularly involved in the annual Spring Clinical Day.

He was founder of the Western New York Network of Institutional Ethics Committees and founder and president of UB’s Friends of the Health Sciences Library.

Chassin was honored by the American College of Physicians for his lifetime achievement. Erie County Medical Center gives an award in his name annually to the outstanding resident in internal medicine.

He received the Sister Mechtilde Memorial Award from Kenmore Mercy Hospital in 1989 and the UB Medical Alumni Association Career Achievement Award in 2000.