Temple University School of Medicine - Skull Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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RIGHT: Larry Ror sharing a hug(1988) wheelchair with a sign saying “Please Place Me for the administration to find. Needless to say, his behavior was not rewarded, but his focus on rectifying inhumanities in our medical system was already thriving. In 1988, towards the end of his residency, a miracle happened in our R1CU. It wasn’t one of the many patients Dr. Kaplan coded, or one of the many that he consoled. In fact, it happened in the clean utility room: Armed with a pint of New York Super Fudge Chunk. Larry Kaplan asked Roz Barsky to marry him. She accepted his proposal. And in 1989, just before Dr. Kaplan took his first attending position at Cooper, they married. Dr. Roz Kaplan completed her internal medicine residency at Temple in 1990. FAR ABOVE:The Kaplan Family on 3 trip to Alaska in 2006. ABOVE: The family (1994). Soon after would come the first of their two children, Max, who, according to Dr. Kaplan, has his wife’s IQ and is planning on writing for the New Yorker. In 1993 followed Maddy, who has inherited Dr. Kaplan’s creative, artistic side. Roz describes Dr. Kaplan as a great husband and father. He was the designated parent for driving Max around during his colicky penod and to this day terrifies his family with his style of maneuvering the road learned during his taxi-driving days. Until 2002, Dr. Kaplan stayed at Cooper, although his role changed periodically. He ran Cooper’s Primary Care Residency Program for some time and also ran the student clerkships. When asked if he intended on a career in medical education. Dr. Kaplan asserts that although it wasn’t planned, his role as a medical educator has become one of the most valued parts of his job. While at Cooper. Dr. Kaplan completed the Johns Hopkins General Medicine Faculty Program which has further prepared him for his current leadership position in medical education. In circular fashion. Dr. Kaplan returned to Temple in 2002 as Section Chief of General Internal Medicine and the Internal Medicine Clerkship Director. Although it was difficult leaving many of his patients and colleagues after fourteen years at Cooper, Dr. Kaplan has made a wonderful home for himself here at Temple. In 2004, he was inducted as a faculty member into AOA for his efforts. 6 Temple Urm ersity School of medicine

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(which he only found during his sophomore year), he would remember how his dad, a primary care doctor, had made housecalls to visit his sickest patients. He recalled weekends as a child spent sitting at the nurses’ station handing out cookies while his dad made his rounds. Lucky for us, Dr. Kaplan took an elective during his early years of medical school with a Temple psychiatrist named John Fryer. And not surprisingly, Dr. Kaplan cannot recall most of what was said to him in Classroom A, but can, in vivid detail, describe the day, when instead of going to class, he went with Dr. Fryer to visit the home of a man dying from terminal lung cancer. It was those human moments that helped Dr. Kaplan to survive the brutal first half of medical school. The clinical years were a bit different. Once in rotations. Dr. Kaplan felt stimulated by the deductive reasoning and excelled at thinking through problems. He especially enjoyed spending time with his patients—and internal medicine was an obvious choice for him. He graduated from Temple in 1986 and matched at MCP LEFT: Larry Kaplan in 1974 BELOW: Larry with his family In 1973 During internship Dr. Kaplan won the “crispy critter award,” a somewhat notorious honor. He and his friend Lee spent months at the VA hospital where they became frustrated with administrations inability to find nursing home placement for many of the veterans. In rebellion, they made their own “veteran” out of balloons, a VA robe, and a Foley full of coffee. They left their effigy in a A BON E: Larry Roz Kaplan enjoying dinner out Among his many jobs during college, as a cab driver and a bartender, he found his to way to the hospital under the guise of an ER orderly. After graduating from college and two additional years of studying immunology, Dr. Kaplan realized his calling and started at Temple University School of Medicine in 1982. Now, just because he’d made it to North Philly didn’t mean he would stay. Dr. Kaplan had some serious doubts about his decision during the first two years. (And although he won’t admit it, I have no doubt those eight-hour days in the luxurious Krcsge chairs had something to do with it!) 2007 Sfcull 5

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When asked what he likes best about his job. Dr. Kaplan is emphatic: He loves ninety-nine percent of what he does. The two components that keep him going through the other one percent of the time are his patients and his students. Dr. Kaplan has some patients current careers and family life here. 1 asked Dr. Kaplan why he thinks he was chosen as our dedicatee. And once he finished quoting the Marx Brothers, what 1 heard was his version of the Golden Rule. He treats students as valued colleagues who have knowledge and can teach as well as learn. He has an open door policy and encourages students to come to his office with problems they are facing. He consistently demonstrates his own kindness. It was the humanity of doctonng that brought Dr. Kaplan to this field, the patients who entrust him with the most intimate details about their bodies and who entrust us with their lives. It may have been the humanity that brought Dr Kaplan this field, but it is the people that have kept him here. And so, upon our graduation from medical school. “...he is true to his philosophy that people work and learn better when they are cared for, respected, and treated as equals, not intimidated.” who have been seeing him for twenty years, patients whose office visits begin and end with hugs. They remember when his kids were born, and he their grandchildren. And like his father before him, occasionally Dr. Kaplan has had to bring his children with him to the hospital or the office, where, with or without cookies, they have brightened the days of his convalescing patients. Students who have worked with him on the wards describe Dr Kaplan as an excellent clinician: kind to his patients and to his students. They say that he is true to his philosophy that people work and learn better when they are cared for, respected, and treated as equals, not intimidated. It is obvious his impact on coworkers just by sitting in his office. Covering his desk are tokens of appreciation sent to him by former students. Outside of work. Dr. Kaplan enjoys time with his family, especially traveling: from snorkeling in the Galapagos to hiking in Alaska, from a dude ranch in British Columbia to the beaches of Belize. The Kaplans are planning to stay in Philly. Both Drs. Kaplan are enjoying their when asked to choose a physician, a professor to whom we would dedicate our yearbook, we chose Dr. Lawrence Kaplan, a gentleman wrho exemplifies the kind of doctor and the kind of teacher we’d all like to be. - Lindsay Weinstein, M.D. 2007 Skull I 7