“There was something magical about the Department of Pathology at Stanford University at the time,” pathologist Mahendra Ranchod, M.D., who was a visiting faculty member at the time, recalled in Dorfman’s obituary. “Ron Dorfman and Dick Kempson have built a great department with very high standards, and together they have imbued the place with culture through their actions. We will work hard, work together, and do what is best for our patients.”
Kempton was a large man with an intimidating demeanor at times. But his trainees, many of whom became his colleagues, remember him as a thoughtful and supportive leader.
“He took a very strong interest in the program’s residents and fellows and worked hard to make surgical pathology more unified and recognized as a subspecialty of pathology.”1980s. “He gave his advice freely and openly.I learned a tremendous amount from him. “
Kemptson’s standing in surgical pathology is reflected in his leadership in national and international organizations. He has served as president of the Board of Surgical Pathology, the American and Canadian Academy of Pathology, and the California Society of Pathology.he was a member of the editorial board American Journal of Surgical Pathology When histopathologyIn 1999 he received the Teaching Award from the California Society of Pathologists and in 2003 he received the Distinguished Pathologist’s Award from the American and Canadian Society of Pathologists.
Help after retirement
Kemptson maintained close ties to the Stanford University School of Medicine, despite his many leadership roles and honorary professorship. “He continued to attend meetings and participate in the department until we moved to Hawaii,” Longacre said. “If a pathologist had a difficult case or was worried about a patient, they would go to the corner office and ask.”
Outside the lab, Kemptson loved to travel, enjoy literature, opera, and good food and wine. He maintained an extensive wine cellar and held an annual wine tasting event for the program’s fellows. He was an avid student of history and a rapid gobbler of history books and media. In 2018, he moved to Hawaii with his wife, Vivian, but kept in touch with colleagues at Stanford University’s medical school.
Kempton’s son, Greg Kempton, said his father’s true love was working with the people he mentored and his colleagues, many of whom became close friends. He went to work on weekends, impressing his colleagues that “there is a patient at the end of each glass slide, so that patients don’t have to wait until the next week for a diagnosis,” said Greg Kempson.
Besides his son, Kempton has a wife, Vivian.
