Dr. Alan W. Partin
Former director of Hopkins’ Brady Urological Institute who enjoyed fine cigars and Scotch played football at Ole Miss
Dr. Alan W. Partin, a prostate surgeon who had been director of The Brady Urological Institute, urologist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Medicine and who had developed the Partin Tables that predicted the prognosis of prostate cancer, died March 28 from a glioblastoma at his Fork home. He was 62.
“Throughout his career as a researcher, clinician and a leader, Alan Partin was consistently at the heart of discovery and innovation in the field of urology, always keeping a singular focus on improving outcomes for our patients,” Dr. Theodore L. DeWeese, interim dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine who worked closely with Dr. Partin, said in a statement.
Alan Wayne Partin, son of Philip E. Partin, a factory manager, and Marilyn L. Partin, a banker, was born in Warren, Ohio, and spent his early years in Newton Falls, Ohio, before moving in 1976 with his family to Grenada, Mississippi.
At Grenada High School, he was the consummate athlete having played football, basketball and track.
After graduating high school in 1979 as class valedictorian, Dr. Partin began his college studies at the University of Mississippi, where he was a 6-foot-3, 240-pound offensive tackle for the Ole Miss football team until 1982. He was the recipient of the National Football Foundation University of Mississippi Chapter Scholar-Athlete Award.
In 1983, he graduated summa cum laude from Ole Miss, earning a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and Academic All-Southeast Conference honors.
Friends recalled that Dr. Partin was fond of saying “football trained him to accept change and think on his feet — skills that be brought into the operating room.”
“You think you’re running right, the defense changes and now you’re going left,” Dr. Partin explained in a 2016 interview with the Southeastern Conference’s FootballMatters.org.
“Everything can change in a split second and everyone has to change their plans very quickly,” he said. “As a surgeon, you have to do that nonstop. No surgery is the same.”
In 1988, he earned a Ph.D. in pharmacology and molecular sciences, and a year later, his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
By the time Dr. Partin had completed medical school, he had written 50 peer-reviewed published articles and seven book chapters that firmly solidified his reputation as a notable talent in the field of prostate cancer.
At the Johns Hopkins Hospital, he completed a surgical internship in 1989, a surgical junior residency in 1990, and a urological residency in 1991. He was named a faculty instructor in urology in 1994, an associate a year later, and finally, a professor of urology in 1999.
Dr. Partin was named the Bernard L. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Urologic Oncology at Hopkins. He became one of the world’s leading experts in the field of early detection and treatment for those who were diagnosed with prostate cancer.
One of the crowning achievements of his nearly 40-year career at Hopkins, was developing what became known as the Partin Tables, “a computer model using mathematical formulas to help prostate cancer patients get an accurate prediction of their likelihood of being cured,” according to a biographical profile of Dr. Partin.
He based his tables, which are updated every three years, on a study of 5,600 men who were treated at Hopkins for the disease.
Also, rather than copywriting and reaping the financial benefits from his work, he made them available to anyone.
Dr. Partin, who performed several hundred prostate surgeries each year, carefully planned each one, and like playing football, knew the strategy could change with the first stroke of his scalpel.
“Everybody has anatomical variations. I remove men’s prostates when they have cancer,” he explained in the FootballMatters interview, relying upon football as an analogy for his work.
“There are literally 387 well-defined, distinct maneuvers to that operation. Then you get inside a patient and notice an artery that isn’t supposed to be there is running across the area where you’re operating. You have to change what you are doing. You have to adapt at that moment,” he said.
He added: “That’s like coming up the line and expecting to see one defense and they’ve shifted into another one. You still want to move the ball forward, so you have to think quickly, change up what you were doing and run the play.”
For 17 years until stepping down, Dr. Partin had been the Jakurski Family Director of The Brady Urological Institute and urologist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Medicine.
The Brady Institute, which began receiving patients in 1915, is named for the Gilded Age trencherman and railroad car salesperson, James “Diamond Jim” Buchanan Brady, who endowed it. A portrait of the benefactor hung on the walls of Dr. Partin’s office.
Under Dr. Partin’s administration, the Brady doubled its research space with additional expansion with the world-renowned Greenberg Bladder Cancer Institute and new clinical space at Green Spring Station in Lutherville.
“He pursued science with creative vigor, cared for thousands of patients with kind expertise, and from 2004-2022, led our department through strategic growth, broadening our sphere of influence while maintaining the depth of scientific understanding that still today informs patient care,” said Dr. Mohamad E. Allaf, who succeeded Dr. Partin as urologist-in-chief at Hopkins, in a statement.
“Alan was a dear friend of mine. We were residents together, joined the faculty at the same time and were department chairs at the same time. I’ve known him forever,” Dr. DeWeese said in a telephone interview.
“He was brilliant and devoted to his patients. He was genuine, kind gregarious and fun-loving and he wanted everyone at Hopkins, be they patients, physicians or house staff, recognized. He was a lovely human being,” he said. “And he was dedicated to his patients who knew they were coming to a world expert and how rare this is, and how fortunate we were to have him at this grand institution.”
Dr. Partin was also director of its department of urology which, according to a U.S. News and World Report survey, is one of the top three departments in the nation along with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and the Cleveland Clinic.
His work brought him many accolades some of which included the Ambrose Monnell Research Award, the David Koch Prostate Cancer Research Award.
He served as a member of the advisory council of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, the InfoNet editorial board, and the prostate cancer advisory board of the American Cancer Society.
In 2015, he was inducted into the Ole Miss Alumni Association Hall of Fame. He retired in 2021.
In 2022, the Alan W. Partin Professorship in Urology was established with a $2.5 million endowment to support a faculty member’s research to develop diagnostic tools, treatments and cures for prostate cancer.
Dr. Partin, who enjoyed an occasional fine cigar, also liked collecting and sipping single malt scotches, reading and cooking. He was also an avid Ravens and North Dakota State University Bison football fan.
Plans for a celebration-of-life service to be held this spring are incomplete.
Dr. Partin is survived by his wife of 12 years, Vick Holt, a dental hygienist; two sons, David A. Partin of Parkville and Michael T. Partin of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; two stepsons, Timothy Holt “Topper” Fox of Baltimore and Dane P. Fox of San Paolo, Brazil; a brother, Mark Partin of Dallas; and five grandchildren. Two earlier marriages to Rae Marie Pitcock and Paula Partin ended in divorce.