Ephraim Engleman, MD PS'37 and Peter Liou, MD PS'13

Ephraim Engleman, PS’37 was a violin prodigy at age 6, and age 17 took a job playing in an orchestra in the pit of a local silent movie theater. Eventually, music became an avocation and medicine became a calling. At VP&S he played chamber music with members of the faculty; his class was the first to stage a senior class show. He graduated to become a world-renowned rheumatologist and remains on the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Engleman believes that part of his medical mission is to pass on the blessings he has received. “I happen to be an alumnus of a great medical school and want to do what I can to help VP&S keep teaching medicine the way I learned it.” As a collector of rare instruments, including two Stradivarius violins and two others by Guarneri del Gesù, Dr. Engleman and his wife, Jean, made provisions in their wills to establish a scholarship with a preference of awarding the scholarship to a student with an interest in music.

Peter Liou, PS’13, this year’s Engleman Scholarship recipient, performs regularly in the very same lounge where Dr. Engleman played his violin as a VP&S student nearly 75 years ago. Peter has played both piano and violin at several Columbia University Irving Medical Center events and at Musical Mondays, monthly concerts put together by VP&S students for the CUIMC community. “There is simply no other medical school in the country that offers the same opportunities for musical expression as VP&S,” says Peter. “From the Bard Hall Players to chamber music concerts and coffee houses, I have no doubt that VP&S students will be some of the most well-rounded physicians out there.”

In July 2012, during a surgery rotation at the University of California, San Francisco, Peter had the fortune to meet with Dr. Engleman and join him at his home in San Mateo for an impromptu music session. It was a thrill for Peter to meet both Dr. Engleman and his Strad! The bequest made by Dr. and Mrs. Engleman will leave a legacy to VP&S with future generations of medical students benefiting from the Engleman Scholarship.

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