My condolences to Ron Gilcher’s family. During the decades that Ron and I were active in our careers, we would meet each year at the AABB Annual Meeting to chat about our mutual interest in transfusion medicine. In those years, I was Associate Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, American Red Cross, National Headquarters, Washington, DC. Ron was in Oklahoma, but he had a national, if not global, perspective. We shared our strategies for providing the newest advances in infectious disease testing and optimal quality blood for transfusion. I admired Ron’s ability to quickly identify those innovations that would make a meaningful improvement. Ron was dedicated to providing the best service and quality possible. Patients in Oklahoma received the highest quality blood service possible in the United States.
I retired a few months ago and relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma. I planned to contact Ron and visit soon when I read his obituary and this invitation to send this message.
S. Gerald Sandler, MD, Professor Emeritus, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, DC
