We are very sad to announce that Dr. Benjamin H. Barbour, an early member of the UKRO board of directors and a director emeritus for the last few years, passed away on Sunday, May 18, 2014. Dr. Barbour was an important member of the nephrology community with a long, illustrious career marked by his dedication to improving care for kidney patients. He was a tremendous supporter of UKRO from the beginning and will be greatly missed.
Benjamin H. Barbour, M.D. graduated from Howard University School of Medicine in 1952. Thereafter his post-graduate medical training was completed at Los Angeles County General Hospital between 1952 and 1959, interrupted by two years of service in the United States Air Force as a medical officer. In 1959 he became a full-time faculty member at the University of Southern California (USC). Between 1961 to 1963 he was awarded a fellowship by the Bank of America/Giannini Foundation, which permitted him to work on kidney related problems at the National Institute of Health. He returned to USC in 1963 to continue his research and to start a nephrology program. He was the first chairman of the Department of Nephrology at the USC Keck School of Medicine. In 1967 Dr. Barbour obtained a grant from the State of California to build a regional kidney center at the Los Angeles County/USC Hospital. Aside from providing dialysis and transplant services to hundreds of patients, the center was instrumental in training others to provide such services in Southern California and to improve on treatment methods. In 1975 he focused his activities to expand the number of dialysis facilities in the Los Angeles area and subsequently built and opened nine additional centers. He retired from active practice in 1996, but remained on the clinical faculty at USC, participating in conferences and teaching programs.