In Memoriam
Armand Lowenthal (1919-2001)
Born in The Hague ( the Netherlands ) where his parents had taken refuge during World War I, Armand did his primary classes in the SOJ 3 school in Antwerp. After finishing his secondary studies at the Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerpen he started Medical School in 1937 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Fleeing the Nazi persecutions in occupied Belgium at the beginning of World War II he was lucky to get to Switzerland where he resumed his medical studies at the University of Geneva and graduated as MD in 1944.
Back in Antwerp he started as assistant in Internal Medicine in the Stuivenberg hospital but soon decided to specialize in Neurology at the famous Bunge Institute with Prof. Ludo van Bogaert. Already as a student he had been attracted to biochemistry and had worked during most of his free time at the university’s biochemistry laboratory. While doing his postgraduate he returned to the ULB and started research in the field of neurological biochemistry. In 1959 he got his Ph.D. and became lecturer in Pathologic Biochemistry of the Nervous system. In 1963 on he was promoted to Assistant-Chief of the department of Neurology and Director of the Laboratory of Neurochemistry at the Born-Bunge Institute. These functions he would keep until he retired in 1989.
Untiring worker, he not only made a brilliant clinical career, but simultaneously accomplished an exceptional academic course of progress. He was the “Big Chief” of the department of Neurology at the General Hospital Middelheim from 1969 until 1990. After having been appointed Ordinary Professor at the ULB he got the same nomination at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and at the Universitaire Instelling Antwerpen.
His contributions to the study of the immunoglobulins in the spinal liquor, especially in Multiple Sclerosis, and his original work on the metabolism of arginin, got him an international well-deserved fame.
It would take too much time and space to enumerate all the functions and charges that were entrusted to him in Belgium and other countries but it is certainly worth mentioning that in 1993 he was named vice-president of the World Federation of Neurology. All over the world at the most important scientific congresses, he was requested to present the results of his research-work. Author of more than 500 publications in the most famous medical journals, also of ten books he wrote about his specialty as well as an endless list of conferences bear witness of his continuous interest in Neurology.
Besides having been a man of science and an exceptional clinician, he was also an enthralling and compelling character. Unquenchable reader provided with a prodigious memory, his knowledge about history, art and everything of cultural interest in general, he rightly could be considered as a great humanist. Foremost he was a socially engaged freethinker in search for ammunition in the battle for truth. His high degree of understanding, his unfailing memory, his mind skilled in criticism and his ability to analyze and synthesize made him a much sought-after public speaker who could spellbind any kind of an audience.
In 1967 he was initiated to the Antwerp Masonic Lodge « Les Amis du Commerce et la Persévérance Réunis » and was later to become for three consecutive years its Worshipful Master who impressed his brethren by his charismatic and rationalistic influence.
He was the first President of the Committee of the Lodge for the attribution of the Prize for Medical Research and took care of this duty from 1972 until 2000.
With his passing away on the 5th of January 2001 it is not only a very great personality that disappears but at the same time a well be-loved and much appreciated Brother.