# A good and brilliant man died today

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-and-brilliant-man-died-today/638392>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 21, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-and-brilliant-man-died-today/638392 "2012-10-21T06:58:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-and-brilliant-man-died-today/638392/1 "2012-10-21T06:58:17Z")

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[E. Donnall Thomas](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/20/e-donnall-thomas-dead-dies_n_1994801.html) died at 92 today. He was the father of bone marrow transplantation.  
I knew him. He encouraged me. He stood up for me when a bad thing happened. He was easy to talk to and quick to laugh.  
He saved lives. So many lives.

Don, even though I haven’t seen you in 30 years, I’ll miss you. Sleep well, my friend, you deserve to rest.

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**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\
**Post date:** [October 21, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-and-brilliant-man-died-today/638392/2 "2012-10-21T23:07:30Z")

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I read a very nice article about him this afternoon. He truly was a pioneer in medicine, and his efforts have saved the lives of countless people.

May he rest in peace.  
ETA: One of the things I took away from the article was like your comment - the general public knew him for the bone marrow transplant (if they knew him at all), but his friends and family knew what a great individual he was.

-D/a

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-good-and-brilliant-man-died-today/638392/3 "2012-10-22T00:27:31Z")

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Wow, I know probably a couple people whose lives he saved by virtue of his trailblazing. I’ll bet many of us do. It must be very daunting to develop and perform a procedure that has never been tried – if it works, woo hoo; but if something goes wrong, you gotta take the backlash. Brave man. Rest in peace.