Dr. Paul Seebohm

DR. PAUL SEEBOHM

Iowa City

Dr. Paul Seebohm died Jan. 8, 2017, just five days short of his 101st birthday. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, at Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service, Iowa City, with the Rev. Sam Massey officiating. Visitation will be from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home. Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery, Iowa City. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Paul M. and Dorothy E. Seebohm Allergy Education Fund, c/o the University of Iowa Foundation, 1 West Park Rd., Iowa City, IA 52242.

Dr. Seebohm was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Jan. 13, 1916, the son of John and Alma Marker Seebohm. He graduated from Hughes High School, Cincinnati, in 1934. Dr. Seebohm attended Oberlin College for one year prior to returning to the University of Cincinnati to complete his undergrad and medical degrees. Following a medical internship year at Wisconsin General Hospital in Madison, he spent four years as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Corps.

Dr. Seebohm married Dorothy Eberhart on July 13, 1942, at Height Christian Church, Shaker Heights, Ohio. He returned to Cincinnati in 1946 for the majority of his medical residency, followed in 1948 by an additional year of training at the Robert A. Cooke Institute of Allergy in New York City. He joined the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa in 1949.

The legendary William Bean, who had mentored Seebohm at Cincinnati and in 1948, was named chair of the UI Department of Internal Medicine, recruited Seebohm to Iowa asking him to serve as the first director of a new subspecialty Division of Allergy and Immunology. The entirety of Dr. Seebohm's academic career was spent at Iowa, where he taught generations of innovative, successful allergists and immunologists, who became regional and national leaders in their field. He directed the allergy division from 1949 to 1970, when he became associate dean. In 1974, he was named executive associate dean for the UI College of Medicine. As executive dean, he was instrumental in the creation of a family practice training program, which had a major impact on the primary care of patients throughout Iowa.

Dr. Seebohm joined the national American Academy of Allergy and Immunology (AAAI) in 1950, and rose in its ranks to become president in 1966. He received the highest academy recognition in 1974 as a Distinguished Service awardee. He continued to work on the Professional Standards Committee and the Liaison Committee with the Allergy Foundation, and for 20 years after his presidency, was an active member of the committee on Practice Standards of the American Academy of Allergy.

He served on the Subspecialty Board of Allergy of the American Board of Internal Medicine and was its chairman. In the American Medical Association (AMA), he served as secretary of the AMA Section Council on Allergy and was its chairman. He was instrumental in establishing the allergy/immunology certification board and was the first to win board certification. At the National Institutes of Health, he served on the Allergy and Immunology Research Committee of the NIH and was its chairman. In the Food and Drug Administration, he served on the panel on Review of Allergenic Extracts and was its chairman.

Dr. Seebohm was president of the Iowa Medical Society, president of the Iowa State Board of Health and served on the board of directors of the Health Policy Corporation of Iowa and on several Governor's Advisory boards. He was a member and served as an elder at First United Presbyterian Church.

Though he officially retired in 1986, Dr. Seebohm remained active in the UI Department of Internal Medicine until shortly before his death.

The family would like to extend their appreciation to Dr. Rachael Dirksen, Dr. Melinda Johnson and Dr. James Brown at UIHC. As well as Cathy Tholen, Lavon Yeggy and the staff at HomeSafe.

Survivors include his wife, Dorothy; daughter, Karen Jackson; two stepgrandchildren, John (Kimberlee) Jackson, all of Iowa City, and Valerie McKenzie of Kalispell, Mont.; and niece, Joan (Ted) Anderson of Vista, Calif., and their children, Jonas (Ivette) and Arthur Anderson.

He was preceded in death by his parents; siblings, William Seebohm and Helen Kattelmann; and son-in-law, Jack Jackson.

Online condolences may be sent to www.lensingfuneral.com.