Paul Calabresi, M.D., M.A.C.P.

Professor of Medicine and Chairman Emeritus
Brown University Department of Medicine

Paul Calabresi, M.D. 1930 - 2003 President and Chair Rhode Island Cancer Council, Inc.

A graduate of Yale University (B.A., 1951; M.D., 1955), Dr. Calabresi served his internship and residency on the Harvard Medical Services of the Boston City Hospital. He was on the faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine until 1968 when he came to Brown University as Professor of Medical Science and as Physician-in-Chief at Roger Williams General Hospital. In 1974, Dr. Calabresi became Chairman of the Brown University Department of Medicine. In 1991, he was appointed Chairman of the National Cancer Advisory Board by President George Bush. In 1995 he was appointed to the President's Cancer Panel by President Clinton. In 1998, President and Mrs. George Bush invited Dr. Calabresi to serve on the Steering Committee for the National Dialogue on Cancer. Dr. Calabresi was a member of the Board of Overseers at Tufts University School of Medicine, and served as the Director of the Brown-Tufts Cancer Center. He was a Member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Master of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Calabresi was an internationally recognized authority on the pharmacology of anticancer agents. He was awarded the Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award in Therapeutics from the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the St. George Medal for distinguished volunteer service from the American Cancer Society He was a member and an officer of more than a dozen professional societies, served on nearly two dozen prominent committees and study sections of the National Cancer Institute, on the editorial boards of 8 journals, including as Associate Editor of the Journal of Cancer, and served on the board of The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Calabresi authored or edited more than 200 manuscripts and books on the pharmacology of antineoplastic agents and the management of cancer.

Among many regional positions of leadership and service, Dr. Calabresi was an honorary life member of the Board of Directors of the American Cancer Society, having served as President of the Rhode Island Division from 1990 to 1992, President of the New England Cancer Society from 1994 to 1995, and until his death was Chairman and President of the Rhode Island Cancer Council.

He was the husband of Celia Treadway Gow Calabresi; they had been married for 49 years. Born in Milan, Italy, on April 5, 1930, he was the son of the late Dr. Massimo Calabresi and Prof. Bianca Maria Finzi-Contini Calabresi. His family, active in Italy in the anti-fascist resistance, fled to the United States in September 1939.

Besides his wife, he leaves two sons, Steven Calabresi of Brookline, Mass., and Peter Calabresi of Baltimore, Md.; a daughter, Janice Calabresi Maggs of Arlington, Va.; a brother, Guido Calabresi of Woodbridge, Conn.; and eight grandchildren.