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A. Bernard Ackerman, MD
From the Institute for Dermatopathology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, Pa.

Arch Dermatol. 1998;134:16-17.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

EVER SINCE I was a first-year resident, I began to reflect on what might be the essential qualities of an ideal chairman of an academic department of dermatology. Now, 35 years later, after having done residency training in 3 different programs, having served as a full-time member of departments of dermatology in 3 different universities, and having been a visiting professor at more than 3 score departments of dermatology in the United States and abroad, the image of an ideal chairman has come into sharp focus in my mind's eye. Like all ideals, mine of a chairman would seem to exist only as an idea; an ideal, which connotes perfection, is impossible to attain.

For me, the ideal chairman of an academic department of any kind must, first and foremost, be an academic. The word academic derives from academy, which comes from the name of a . . . [Full Text of this Article]