Dr. Pamela Chambers Champe of Montgomery passed away on Sunday, June 22, 2008, after a short illness.
(August 5, 2008) – It is with sadness that LWW notes the recent passing of Pamela Champe, PhD. Pam initially authored, in collaboration with Richard Harvey, PhD, Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews: Biochemistry–first published in 1987 by J.B. Lippincott. Because of her teaching talent and gift with words, this book has become a staple resource for medical students, and is now in its Fourth Edition. In collaboration with Richard Harvey, PhD, she also authored and edited Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews: Pharmacology–also just out in its fourth edition, and Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews: Microbiology. For all of these books, there are also faculty image bank products, and many international editions and translations have also been published. Pam’s most recent project was the upcoming Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews: Physiology. Pamela also participated enthusiastically in a USMLE Step 1 Panel Discussion with medical students at the American Medical Student Association meeting, providing helpful advice and wisdom to students. She was also awarded the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society’s 1995 Distinguished Teacher Award for Senior Faculty in the Basic Sciences. This represents the highest accolade for a medical educator, and she was the first non-MD and first woman ever to win the award.
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins acknowledges the profound contribution Pamela’s work has had on medical education for students over the past two decades. She will be greatly missed. The following obituary was published in the Charleston Gazette on June 27, 2008.
Dr. Pamela Chambers Champe of Montgomery passed away on Sunday, June 22, 2008, after a short illness.
Truly beloved by thousands – students, neighbors, family and a legion of friends around the world – Pam was an inspired educator, an intrepid adventurer and a deeply committed friend.
Born in Oakland, Calif., in 1945 and raised in the Bay Area, Pam earned her BA from Stanford University in 1967, an MS in microbiology from Purdue University in 1969, and a Ph.D. in microbiology from Rutgers University in 1974. For the next 22 years she taught at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers in Piscataway, N.J., earning tenure as an associate professor, a rare distinction for non-research faculty.
Pam was a gifted teacher whose talents were sought for many programs and classes. She won every teaching award the medical school offered, and in 1992 received the school’s first ever Lifetime Achievement Award for Teaching, created for her by the student body. Pam applied her enthusiasm and energy to directing the Minority Students Program at the medical school, an innovative and highly successful initiative that became a model for similar programs throughout the country. Pam repeatedly was recruited as a guest lecturer in countries as diverse as Kuwait and Grenada and made friendships in those nations that lasted for decades.
Pam’s success as a teacher generated new ways to explain and present scientific subject matter, which led to a collaboration with Richard Harvey for a highly successful series of books. “Lippincott’s Illustrated Reviews,” serving students in health related fields and professionals, included titles on Biochemistry, Pharmacology, and Microbiology. This week she was notified that over a million copies of these titles have been purchased.
Pam’s great joy was sharing her life with Dr. Sewell Preston Champe, a world-respected microbiologist, whom she married on June 28, 1969. The couple lived in Edison, N.J., until 1996, when they moved to Sewell’s hometown of Montgomery in the beautiful Kanawha Valley. They built a lovely home overlooking the Kanawha River and enthusiastically participated in the life of the town, making dozens of friends and serving on several community boards and committees. Pam was always grateful for the support West Virginians extended to her after Sewell’s death in 1999.
Pam traveled widely throughout Europe and Asia, with great curiosity for and interest in cultural history. She built a museum-quality shell collection, read thousands of books and welcomed high school and college chums, professional colleagues, neighbors, cousins and family friends to her home. Pam continued to find time to stay current in her professional field updating subsequent editions in the Lippincott series.
Pam is survived by a sister, Penelope Percy of Seattle, Wash.; brother, James Chambers of Dallas, Texas; stepsons, Mark Champe of San Francisco, Calif., and Peter Champe of Longmont, Colo.; nephews, Robert Chambers and Cameron Percy; niece, Katharine Chambers; grandchildren, Alexander Gilliland, Uma Champe and Benjamin Sewell Champe; 30 first cousins she adored; and countless students, relatives and friends who will miss her warm attention and affection.
A memorial celebration of Pam’s life was held at her home in Montgomery at 3 p.m. Thursday, July 26, 2008. In honor of Pam’s legacy, gifts to the Pamela and Sewell Preston Champe Endowed Scholarship Fund, c/o West Virginia University Institute of Technology, P.O. Box 94, Montgomery, WV 25136, will be most appreciated.
Arrangements were by O’Dell Funeral Home, Montgomery.
