International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery | 2019
Notes from the Editor Emeritus, 1996–1998
Abstract
The next time I saw Dr. Orentreich was at a meeting conducted by the American Association of Cosmetic Surgeons at the Plaza Hotel in New York City in June 1984. I doubt if he remembered my visit in 1970, but I was by then on the Congress Faculty and had performed many thousands of procedures. Dr. Orentreich gave a 15-minute talk about the future of HT and the possibilities of regrowing hair medically. He joined a six-man Panel discussing punch autografts but did not take any further part of the meeting. We met for a third time when Dr. Orentreich was an invited guest at the 1997 ISHRS meeting in Barcelona, Spain. He was presented with our highest honour, the then-new Manfred Lucas Award, which honored his contributions to Hair Transplantation. It was a beautiful piece of artwork sculpted by an esteemed German colleague who had recently died. Dr. Orentreich again briefly addressed the meeting but did not remain for any further part of the extensive 3-day program. We met a fourth time at the ISHRS meeting in New York City in October 2003 when we were part of a group of 12 Hair Transplant “Pioneers” who were the recipients of flattering speeches and handsome plaques. Sam Ayres was not able to attend due to ill health and Dr. Orentreich was missing from the group photograph even though he had attended the Opening Session on the previous day. It was great to catch up with Drs. Blu Stough, Tom Alt, George Farber, Robert Berger Jay Barnet, Patrick Rabineau, and Hiram Sturm. Only O’Tar Norwood, Walter Unger, and I were members of the ISHRS as the others had never joined, remaining faithful to their older dermatology and surgical societies. I never saw Dr. Orentreich again, but a suggestion in the Forum some time later that he had retired brought a swift response from his secretary and an apology from our editor. He was still very much alive in his late-80s and still directing his various research projects.