BRUCE E. STABILE, M.D.
1944-2021

The son of Italian immigrants, Bruce Stabile was born on April 14, 1944 in Monterey Park, California. He passed away on February 5, 2021 at the age of 76 years.

Bruce attended El Monte High School in the San Gabriel Valley, where he was both a football and track star. He did his undergraduate work at UCLA, received a medical degree from UCSF Medical School, and completed an internship and residency at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center from 1970-1977.

Following residency, Bruce joined the West LA VA and UCLA surgical faculty until 1985, when he was recruited to serve as Chief of the Surgical Service at the San Diego VA Medical Center. In 1993, Bruce became Chair of the Department of Surgery at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and served in that role until his retirement in 2014.

Bruce was the consummate academic surgeon. He was a superb technical surgeon with great facility in both gastrointestinal and vascular procedures. He was an accomplished investigator. And he was a revered educator.

Bruce published over 280 scientific papers with landmark communications among them. Working with Dr. Edward Passaro in the surgery of endocrine diseases, he described the gastrinoma triangle in 1984. In 1990, he was coauthor of one of the first articles describing CT guided drainage for diverticular abscesses. Early in his career, Bruce published a paper describing 109 consecutive aortic operations without a mortality. He was an investigator and surgeon in the original NASCET study demonstrating efficacy of carotid endarterectomy. Bruce’s teaching was recognized with many awards including the UCLA Department of Surgery Golden Scalpel in 1983, 1984, and 1985, the Harbor-UCLA Department of Surgery Clinical Faculty Teacher of the Year in 1985, the UCSD School of Medicine Golden Apple Award Faculty Teacher of the Year in 1991, and the Harbor-UCLA Department of Surgery Faculty Teacher of the Year in 1999, 2000, and 2007.

Bruce served as a Director of the American Board of Surgery, a member of the ACS Board of Governors, and president of the San Diego Surgical Society, Los Angeles Surgical Society, Southern California Chapter of ACS, and the Pacific Coast Surgical Association. He served on the editorial boards of Archives of Surgery (now JAMA Surgery), Journal of Surgical Research, and UCLA Medicine.

Bruce is survived by his wife Caroline, with whom he enjoyed more than 50 years of marriage, and two children, Drew and Jessica. His legacy is with them and the many other lives he touched. To know Bruce was to recognize and to admire the excellence of his sterling character, his keen intellect, his robust humor, and his many talents.

JONATHAN R. HIATT, MD
SAMUEL E. WILSON, MD