In Memoriam Dr. Charles D. Ericsson by Herbert L. DuPont, MD

Charles D. Ericsson, MD, received his MD from Harvard Medical School. He did his internal medicine training at the University of Minnesota and carried out infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Texas Houston, where he was currently the Dr. and Mrs. Carl V. Vartian Professor of Infectious Diseases and Head of Clinical Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine. He was additionally director of the University of Texas Travel Medicine Clinic and the Infectious Diseases Fellowship program.

While Charlie’s clinical and teaching skills are well known, and he is considered locally as a wonderful and thoughtful person, a great teacher and a master clinician, I wanted to comment on the internal reputation Charlie established that is not so well known by his Houston colleagues.

Charlie completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Minnesota where I did mine and was the third ID fellow to join our group at the new UT-H medical school. While the studies in Mexico were well developed by the time he arrived, from the time he started his fellowship in 1977, until the school stopped the program in 2009 because of concern of personal safety, he was critical to the program and to the education of more than 200 4th year medical students on an elective with us.

From 1977 through 2009 (32 years), Charlie spent approximately one month in Mexico supervising studies in all but one summer.

Charlie authored or co-authored 75 original science papers, 30 review articles and 2 books dealing with the topic of travelers’ diarrhea. This work provided a structure for his professional career, of which he was quite proud. He established an international reputation in travel medicine.

Charlie was the first editor of the Journal of Travel Medicine, the top journal in the field, which currently has a 5-year Impact Factor of 7.9 and is ranked 10th out of 137 journals in infectious diseases.

Charlie was the 5th President of the International Society of Travel Medicine, from 1999-2001, and played an important advisory role in the organization since and was currently serving as Chair of the Special Recognitions Committee. He was also an ISTM Fellow.

Charlie has served as the backbone of infectious diseases at the University of Texas McGovern Medical School from near the beginning of the school and has established an independent and internationally recognized reputation as one of the leaders in the discipline of travel medicine. You can listen to Charlie tell about his 50 years on the faculty at the University of Texas by watching the video below.

We have lost an academic colleague, an international scholar and a wonderful friend.

On behalf of ISTM, we extend our heartfelt condolences to Charlie’s wife Joyce, his family, friends, colleagues and all those whose lives and careers he touched.