Eph Engleman, violinist and rheumatologist, dies at desk at 104

Dr. Ephraim P. Engleman, a violin prodigy who later became a world-renowned rheumatologist and the senior faculty member, by a long shot, at UCSF, has died.

Dr. Engleman, published an advice book titled “My Century” at age 102, and planned to update it at 105, collapsed and died in his office at age 104 on Sept. 2.



Since 1947, Dr. Engleman (nicknamed Eph) practiced and taught at the Parnassus Heights campus of UCSF Medical Center, where seniority got him a top-floor office with a panoramic view.

In an interview with The Chronicle four years ago, he described growing up amid wide- open apricot orchards and placing phone calls by taking the earpiece off its hook and barking into the wall phone, whereupon the operator would place his call.

By age 16, he was playing along to silent pictures in movie theaters, and when the Fox California Theatre opened in 1927, he was leader of the house orchestra, adding sound to the onscreen action and performing a concert between features.

“My father was an extraordinary role model and we were always very proud of him,” said Dr. Edgar Engleman, a professor of pathology and immunology specialist at Stanford University School of Medicine, and an accomplished violinist.

Dr. Engleman served in World War II as a major in the U.S. Army and chief of the Army’s Rheumatic Fever Center, in the California desert.

Dr. Engleman was a pioneer in the field of rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic disease that deforms the hands and feet.

Survivors include his wife of 74 years, Jean of San Mateo; sons Edgar of Atherton and Philip of Los Gatos; daughter Jill Roost of Hillsborough; six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.