Ronald P. Kaufman, MD, FACPE.

ACPE is saddened by the death of Ronald P. Kaufman, MD, FACPE, former president of the College and longtime ACPE supporter. Kaufman, 73, died last month in Tampa, Fla., from pancreatic cancer.

As a physician executive, Kaufman played key leadership roles at the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center in Tampa. He is credited with combining the school's Colleges of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health to create the Health Sciences Center.

Kaufman, an ACPE Fellow, was College president from 1986-87. "Dr. Kaufman was known as a leader among leaders of the nation's premier health care organizations," says Roger Schenke, executive vice president of ACPE. "He was a person of unique vision in anticipating the future of health care."

He was USFs first vice president for health sciences from 1987 to 1994 and physician executive director of the USE Physicians Group from 1996 to 2000. Most recently, he was senior medical adviser in the College of Medicine and a professor in the College of Public Health.

Before arriving at USE, he served as vice president for medical affairs and executive dean at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He was a member of the management team that treated President Ronald Reagan when he was wounded in an assassination attempt.

Throughout his career, Kaufman kept pace with state and national proposals for health care reform and strongly advocated the value of academic health care centers at a time when clinical education faced threats from the growth of managed care.

Kaufman earned a bachelor's degree from Trinity College in Connecticut and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.