[Histonet] Obituary - pathologist Bernard Leon Klionsky

[Bob Richmond]

With his permission I post pathologist Leon Metlay's Facebook obituary of
his wife's father:

My father-in-law, Dr. Bernard Leon Klionsky, died [November 11th, 2017] at
the age of 92. He was one of the unsung heroes of pathology. As a young
man, he invented the form of cryostat that we all use to this day, with the
microtome down inside the freezer. He was one of the greatest teachers I've
ever known. He was primarily known as a cytopathologist, but was also an
early member of the Pediatric Pathology Club.

As a child, during the Depression, he sold ice cream from a box on his
bicycle. He realized that the ice cream stayed cold with the opening on the
top. He applied that to cryostats. The paper was (I think) in AJCP. Some
time in the late '50s.

I asked him: What was his relationship to International / Damon / IEC (I
don't remember the exact name), that as far as I know brought out the first
practical refrigerated microtomes? I think they came along in 1960, and
were in common use by the time I got into pathology in 1964, though the old
"wet knife" method continued in common use into the 1970s.

He replied: He had no relationship with any manufacturer as far as I know.
As I heard it, he tried to put the idea in the public domain, so that
cryostats would be less expensive. I don't know what happened. The
University of Kansas got a free cryostat while he was there. When he moved
on to Pitt, the manufacturer took back the cryostat.

Does any of our old-timers remember any of this?

Bob Richmond

Samurai Pathologist

Maryville TN