Gabriel Richet (1916-2014), founding editor of Nephron.

Abstract

timately being decorated with the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur by General de Gaulle in 1945. Thereafter, Gabriel Richet fell under the wing of Professor Jean Hamburger at the Necker Hospital in Paris. Together they built one of the leading nephrology centers in the world, being at the forefront of the treatment of acute and chronic kidney failure, dialysis and renal transplantation. Throughout his career, he sought to understand the pathophysiological basis of the diseases he was treating and to apply such knowledge to devising appropriate therapeutic approaches. This eventually led to an intensive care approach in his unit to the management of fluid, electrolyte and metabolic disorders. 1961 was an important year for Richet. This is when he moved to Tenon Hospital, where he started to build an impressive team of clinical nephrologists and scientists. It was also in 1961 that the first notion of creating an international nephrology journal was proposed. The ExecuWe announce, with deep sorrow, the death of Professor Gabriel Richet. On a shelf in my office is a small pile of scientific reprints, each bearing a small hand-written inscription and interleaved with thoughts and suggestions on the notepaper of Professor Gabriel Richet. He sent these to me knowing that I would enjoy reading his views on ‘An unrecognized renal physiologist: Fredrich Wohler’ or ‘La naissance de l’urémie’, ‘Osmotic diuresis before Homer W. Smith: a winding path to renal physiology’ or ‘The osmotic pressure of the urine – from Dutrochet to Koranyi, a trans-European interdisciplinary epic’, and many more like those. His only urging was that the novelty of the concepts be understood, and that credit be assigned to those who initiated the ideas, regardless of how well they had been recognized by others and regardless from where they hailed. This was Richet – charming, polite, regal and yet challenging, honest and often indignant. He once said to me with a smile on his face, ‘you are a stupid man!’ He was right – I had made a foolish remark to the wrong person. I recanted. I enjoyed receiving such a direct rejoinder from one of the acknowledged giants in the field of nephrology. Gabriel Richet came from a lineage of distinguished men of medicine, the fourth in a family of professors at the Faculté de Médecine in Paris. During the Second World War he joined the resistance with other members of his family who were deported or jailed. He himself was held in captivity. After the liberation of France, he enrolled in the army and participated in the ongoing fighting as a doctor, for which he received three citations, ulPublished online: November 6, 2014