Elias Abrutyn, MD, MACP; 15 April 1940–22 February 2007

On 22 February 2007, Annals of Internal Medicine lost a beloved colleague when Elias Abrutyn died suddenly after suffering an acute myocardial infarction. As an associate editor of Annals for the past 29 years, Eli graced our weekly editorial conferences with his habitual self-effacing good humor, his elegant personal presence, and his incisive intellect. We, his fellow editors, depended on his good counsel to help shape the journal, as he did most notably in the early days of the HIV epidemic, when he was instrumental in attracting many important pioneering articles to Annals. He treasured his work as an …