Leonard J. Perloff was born in Philadelphia where he lived his entire life, except for the short time in the army. In college at Penn, he was Phi Beta Kappa, and a member of the fencing team. After medical school at Penn, internship at PGH, residency under Jonathan Rhoads and vascular fellowship at HUP, he spent 2 years on the transplant service at Walter Reed hospital rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel. He then returned to Penn, where he remained for the rest of his career, becoming Professor of Surgery in 1989. At HUP he was Associate Chief of Transplantation and Assistant Chief of Vascular Surgery.
Dr. Perloff was a versatile academic surgeon. Although he said that basic research was not his long suit, the respect he was accorded by others to his status as an experimentalist was indicated by his appointment as Chairman of the VA National Merit Review Board for Surgery. Several of the studies carried out with the support of his NIH ROI grant contributed substantially to the basic understanding of allograft rejection. He defined the importance of the transplant site in the fate of thyroid allografts.
Despite his considerable accomplishments as an experimentalist, Len was primarily a clinical surgeon, and a superb one. Trained by Brooke Roberts, a master vascular surgeon, Len eventually became HUP's most active vascular surgeon. He was also an experienced transplant surgeon, and many of the 100 entries in his bibliography were clinical papers on this subject.
Len was a skilled and extremely popular teacher with a gift for developing rapport with students and residents. He directed the Department's clerkship and chaired the School's Student Standards Committee. The medical students elected him to honorary membership in AOA, and in 1992, named him the School's Outstanding Teacher. In 1994, the Penn Medical School yearbook was dedicated to him. The surgical residents named an annual teaching award in his honor.
Leonard's national and international recognition were confirmed by his election to many prestigious academic societies including the International Transplantation Society, the Society for Vascular Surgery, the Society of University Surgeons. An unusual honor was his posthumous election as a member of the American Surgical Association.
Len Perloff's greatest talents were not in research laboratory nor were they in the operating theater or the classroom. His people skills and sense of humor were his most widely recognized assets and through them, he contributed much to his patients, his colleagues, and his school.
For a busy academic surgeon, Len had an unusually well-developed appreciation for life outside of medicine. Walter Sarazan, the golfer said "…You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry, and don't forget to smell the flowers along the way." Len had some worries, but he always handled himself with style and grace. After his death, most of the letters received from his friends, former fellows, and students commented on his talent for smelling the flowers, enjoying life, sharing a joke.