Allan E. Jackman, MD
October 31, 1932 - October 20, 2021
Dr. Allan E. Jackman (aka Dr. Ajax) was born on Halloween Day in 1932 at the height of the Depression. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York, a few blocks from Ebbets Field. He was the son of James J. Jackman, a civil attorney and his wife Dora, a homemaker. He fondly remembered walking with his father to Dodger games beginning at the age of 5 and to Saturday evening Edwin Franco Goldman band concerts in Prospect Park a few blocks further east.
He graduated from Erasmus Hall High School and entered Columbia College at age 16 in September 1949. In addition to pre-med studies, he became the Sports Editor of the Daily Spectator as well as the Director of the Student Elections Commission.
Allan graduated from Columbia’s Medical School (P&S) and then took a rotating internship at Mt. Sinai Hospital (before it had a medical school). He then elected to join the United States Air Force Medical Corps, serving as a Captain at the American Hospital in Ankara, Turkey for 2 years. During the last year he was Chief of Staff of this 50-bed facility.
After travelling around Europe for a year, he returned to the United States and moved to San
Francisco where his pollen (ragweed) allergies were much less severe. He did a 1-year medical residency at Presbyterian Hospital in 1961, a year after Stanford moved its medical school to the current location in Palo Alto.
Allan then did a 2-year medical residency at UCSF before going into a downtown San Francisco medical practice at 450 Sutter as an associate to the former Chief of Rheumatology at Stanford. There he became interested in sub-specializing in Arthritis and was an attending physician at UCSF’s Medical and Arthritis Clinics for the next 40 years, being appointed an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine in 1980. Two years later, he was elected to the Presidency of the Northern California Rheumatism Association for 2 years and also served on the San Francisco Medical Society’s Malpractice Advisory Committee for 20 years.
In May 1964 he married Vivian Strass whom he had met at UCSF where she was working as a clinic scheduler. They had two sons, Owen and Russell, born one year apart and always very emotionally close. The family lived in Tiburon for over 25 years. Vivian pre-deceased Dr. Jackman in August 1997, three months after a liver transplant at UCSF for complications of an unusual blood condition. A few years later he met Evelyn Topper of Mill Valley and they were close partners for the rest of his life (1999-2021).
Dr. Jackman was beloved by the great majority of his many patients. He was happy to discover, at the time of his retirement in 2003 that he had been practicing “Boutique Medicine” for 40 years, making house calls and being available by pager 24/7 at no extra charge!
He remained very active after his retirement, serving on the Fromm Institute For Lifelong Learning’s Student Advisory Council for over a decade, as well as on the Board of the Marin Shakespeare Festival for several years. He greatly enjoyed travelling the world with Evelyn every March when Fromm was in intersession. He was also an enthusiastic stamp collector, an amateur photographer, a lover of art, music, literature, and sports.
He is survived by his sons, Owen Jackman and Russell Jackman, his grandchildren Jimmy Jackman and Jane Jackman, his long-time partner and companion, Evelyn Topper and his adopted family, Vanessa Topper, François Gounard and Mikayla Gounard.
Allan passed away peacefully on October 20, 2021 at the age of 88 and was laid to rest at Fernwood Cemetery in Mill Valley, California. May Allan’s memory be a blessing to all who loved him.
Donations in Allan E. Jackman’s memory will be added to the VP & S Class of 1957 Scholarship Fund of Columbia University:
Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
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