Beloved Former HMS Dean Dies

Former Harvard Medical School Dean Daniel C. Tosteson ’46, whose reforms catalyzed a revolution in modern medical education around the world, died last Wednesday due to complications from a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 84 years old.

Tosteson held the deanship for 20 years from 1977 to 1997—a transformational period during which the Medical School overhauled its teaching methods, restructured its academic departments, and increased its endowment nearly ninefold.

“He had all the necessary clarity and force of intellect, the capacity to lead and persuade, and the human qualities that inspire admiration,” said Neil L. Rudenstine, who was president of the University during the final years of Tosteson’s deanship. “I will personally miss him, and Harvard will certainly miss him.”

Faculty and staff who worked with Tosteson praised him as a “visionary”—many of the changes he pushed for remain hallmarks of medical education over 20 years later.

Tosteson is credited with modernizing teaching at Harvard and at universities around the world. Through the “New Pathway” program launched in 1985, he advocated for a significant reduction in classroom hours—students once attended lecture until early evening—and a new emphasis on group work and case studies.

The former dean realized that scientific knowledge was increasing “exponentially,” and as a result, it would no longer be acceptable for students to devote their time to memorizing facts, said Miriam S. Wetzel, a curriculum coordinator during Tosteson’s tenure.

Instead, Tosteson established a program in which students would work in small groups and analyze medical situations to develop problem-solving skills that would remain applicable in the face of accelerating scientific progress. Harvard was the first major medical school in the United States to implement these curricular changes, which set the standard for medical education both at home and abroad.

While instituting radical reforms, Tosteson maintained a strong rapport with the Medical School faculty—not all of whom initially embraced his vision for the Medical School’s future.

“He was a man of great courage to institute a completely new approach to medical education,” Wetzel said, recalling that some professors were skeptical of students’ ability to acquire all the knowledge they would need in fewer hours of traditional lectures. “There were a lot of jokes about the New Pathway afternoon naps.”

Tosteson also recognized the need to embrace cutting-edge and outward-looking research by reconfiguring the Medical School’s academic departments.

His tenure saw the creation of the Departments of Cell Biology, Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Health Care Policy, and Social Medicine (renamed the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine). He also made plans to delve into functional genomics, even as some questioned the importance of the field.

Though Tosteson implemented sweeping reforms, including interdepartmental initiatives that required a centralization of power, colleagues praised his willingness to support others’ projects without unduly interfering.

“He was not a micro-manager,” said S. James Adelstein, executive dean for academic programs under Tosteson. “If [others] did a good job, he let them run with it and supported them as much as possible.”

Tosteson was able to realize his expansive vision in part because of his prowess at fundraising. The endowment’s growth from $128 million to $1.1 billion during his 20 year tenure helped to finance a bigger faculty and major construction projects.

Though he was consumed by his work, he was “totally present” in the lives of his children, said his son Joshua Tosteson. During family trips to their vacation home in Maine, Tosteson was known to sing sea shanties aboard his boat “Bellina.”

Tosteson’s devotion to the Medical School was matched only by his passion for sports. Though a native of Milwaukee, he developed a strong allegiance to the Red Sox and held season tickets behind third base for many years. A football player while an undergraduate at the College, he later golfed religiously, said his son Tor D. Tosteson.

In addition to an affinity for jazz music and poetry, the former dean also dabbled in amateur astronomy and his knowledge and interest spanned all the sciences.

“He was a huge shadow to walk in and I will gladly walk in it for the rest of my life,” Joshua L. Tosteson ’94 said.

Tosteson graduated from the Medical School in 1949 and held administrative posts at Duke and the University of Chicago before returning to Harvard as dean. He received numerous accolades and served as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1997 to 2000 after stepping down as dean.

Tosteson is survived by his wife, a biophysics lecturer at the Medical School, two sons, and four daughters.

—Staff writer Athena Y. Jiang can be reached at ajiang@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Laura G. Mirviss can be reached at lmirviss@fas.harvard.edu.