Donald Alan Podoloff

Donald was born in Manhattan on December 23, 1937, the only child of Samuel and Ruth (Satz) Podoloff. Most of his childhood and young adult life was spent on the Upper West Side of New York City. He attended public schools until high school where his parents enrolled him at New Lincoln, a private, progressive school. Upon graduation, Donald started his college career at the University of Rochester as a pre-med student. His father, Sam, had a heart attack the summer between Donald’s freshman and sophomore years, and Donald decided to move back home to help his family save money and finished his studies at New York University.

Upon graduation in 1959 with a Bachelor of Arts with an honor’s in chemistry, Donald attended State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University College of Medicine in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with his M.D. in 1964 and completed a 4-year internship and residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. During his residency tenure he was intern of the year and co-chief medical resident in his final year of residency.

After completing his residency, Donald was drafted into the United States Air Force in 1968 and was assigned to Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Oklahoma as an internal medicine physician. Serving as the base physician, he came to realize that internal medicine was not for him. Luckily, the Air Force sent him on a 6-week radiology course where upon completion he became the “instant” base radiologist. He fell in love with the work and it became his true passion and calling in life.

When the base closed in January of 1970, Donald was reassigned to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio where he completed a 3-year radiology and nuclear medicine residency. After serving for six years in the Air Force, Donald left in June 1975, moved to Houston, Texas, and began his career at Diagnostic Clinic of Houston where he started and lead their Nuclear Medicine Department. During his tenure at Diagnostic Clinic Donald was also a Clinical Associate Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center.

In 1986, Donald joined The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as an Associate Professor in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. He also served as the Deputy Chairman in the Department of Nuclear Medicine in the Division of Diagnostic Imaging. As part of his position Donald also served as the Education Coordinator for Resident Training from 1986 to 1995. In addition to his work as the Deputy Chairman, he also served on numerous committees including the Radiopharmaceutical Drug Delivery Committee and Medical Staff Credentialing Committee where he served as Vice chairman from 1995 to 1997. In 1997 Donald accepted the position of Chair of the Department of Nuclear Medicine before being promoted to the Division Head of Diagnostic Imaging in 2001. In 2009 Donald was promoted to the Medical Director for the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging (CABI) a new division of MD Anderson Cancer Center where he stayed until his retirement in 2016. Throughout his tenure at MD Anderson, Donald spearheaded research focused on diagnostic methods and therapies for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma as well as functional imaging to locate tumors and determine drug dosages. He was also a prolific published writer and presented at conferences around the globe.

Donald is survived by his wife of 58 years, Mary Ellen Sutton; his three sons and their wives, John and Jamie Podoloff, Andrew Podoloff and Wendy Lounds, and Michael and Colea Podoloff; his daughter Jennifer Podoloff; and his five grandchildren, Clara Podoloff, Caleb Podoloff, Thomas and Jada Fernald, Tanner Kleis and Haiden Kleis. Donald’s philosophy in life came from his grandmother who used to say, “Man plans and God decides;” he always said God decided well for him.

A memorial service will be held on Friday, March 22 at 11 AM, at Congregation Beth Israel, 5600 North Braeswood. In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to MD Cancer Center or Congregation Beth Israel in honor of Dr. Donald Podoloff.