As his career evolved, Baruj’s efficiency and administrative prowess became legendary. He launched his career as an independent investigator while overseeing a substantial family business enterprise. At the height of his active professional life, he simultaneously led the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute during an unprecedented period of growth in its clinical and research operations, and his own very active and productive basic immunology laboratory. One of Baruj’s life-long friends and professional colleagues, Sheldon Wolff, urged me to spend time working with Baruj after I finished my clinical training in medicine, saying that even if I eventually chose to pursue a career outside of science, I would learn invaluable lessons from Baruj on how to be a successful administrator.

While Baruj’s many achievements were impressive, he claimed that his greatest satisfaction came from mentoring young immunologists. He cared deeply about the professional success and personal happiness of his fellows. In spite of his many pressing administrative obligations, he always found time to walk through the laboratory every day and speak individually with each of his fellows about the progress of his or her experiments. He often called me at home in the evening to discuss the outcome of an experiment if the results were not apparent by the end of the usual work day. Perhaps most importantly, his mentoring did not end when a fellow left the laboratory to embark on an independent career. As he did with many others who trained with him, Baruj continued to provide me with invaluable advice on scientific and professional issues as my career progressed. It is not surprising that Baruj’s fellows have gone on to make major contributions to our understanding of the immune system and have played major leadership roles in the field of immunology. Central to his success as a mentor was his genuine feeling that each of his fellows