Dr. Stan Shane, devoted physician, husband, father, and grandfather, died May 25, 2022, after a lengthy battle with cancer and other health issues.
His smile, wit, love of life, and keen sense of humor will be missed.
Stan was born on July 29, 1933, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Gertrude and David Shane, who operated a small grocery store (Dandy’s) in the meatpacking district of Kansas City. He attended the University of Kansas on a special three-year pre-med program after graduating from Paseo High School and earned his medical degree at the U of K School of Medicine. He took an internship at Los Angeles County Medical Center and then an internal medicine residency at the University of Kansas. He followed a well-known endocrinologist, Ed Flink, to West Virginia University School of Medicine in 1961 to become chief resident and then completed a fellowship in endocrinology.
From 1963 to 1965, Stan served in the U.S. Air Force as a physician in the early U.S. Astronaut Program (prior to NASA), earning the rank of captain. He worked with Ken Cooper, M.D., who was instrumental in the early aerobic exercise craze. Stan was well known for running throughout Morgantown for exercise with his FM radio headset on.
Early in his career, he helped to develop the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Morgantown shortly after it became a four-year program. During his 24 years at WVU, he became a professor of internal medicine and held several roles – director of the Metabolic Research Lab, section chief of endocrinology and metabolism and chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine. He developed a love for the outdoors, spending weekends skiing, hiking, camping, cycling, and sailing with his family. His patients adored him, and one devoted patient even bequeathed him a 200-acre tree farm.
In 1987, Stan became vice dean at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine in Omaha. He missed the mountains, and in 1989, he discovered Reno when he came to watch his daughter downhill ski race at Mt Rose. Stan spent more than 25 years as the Chairman of Internal Medicine and Associate Dean at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. He was a devoted clinician and teacher, inspiring generations of students and residents to be caring and competent physicians and assuring that patients received the care they needed and deserved. He retired in 2015 at the age of 82 years – 57 years after completing medical school.
He leveraged his dedication to medical education through various avenues. He was part of a team at the University of Nevada Medical School that started a family medicine residency in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, in the early 2000s. He was fondly known as “Dr. Endocrinologist” by his Kyrgyz colleagues. He served for years on the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Residency Review Committee. Also, he served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.
In addition to his service to the University of Nevada Medical School, Stan helped found Northern Nevada HOPES in Reno. He chaired the board, helping to grow the clinic that served people with HIV, and then later becoming a full-service health center.
Often referred to as "The Doctors’ Doctor," Stan was a favorite of his medical students and a mentor to many. He loved seeing patients and teaching at the bedside. Among his many national and local honors, he was inducted as a master of the American College of Physicians in 2018. He was governor of the Nevada Chapter of the ACP from 1998 to 2000 and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from this organization in 2016.
Stan was predeceased by his parents, his brother (Theodore Shane), his sister (Rita Shane Kushner), and his first wife of 40 years, Beverly E. Shane (Southwest High School). He is survived by his beloved wife of 17 years, Suzanne; three children (Steven Shane of Reno, NV; Scott Shane of Kings Beach, CA; Shoshana Mueller of Redwood City, CA); two stepchildren, two grandchildren and five step-grandchildren.
A memorial fund has been established, creating the Stan Shane M.D. outstanding student award in Internal Medicine at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. To make a gift, please contact Laurice Antoun-Becker, senior director of development, at (775) 682-6077.
