Lasting Memories

Jack Samuel Remington
Jan. 19, 1931-April 8, 2021
Menlo Park, California

Internationally Acclaimed Infectious Disease Physician-Scientist

Jack S. Remington, M.D., described as the “Pope of Toxoplasmosis” and a legendary leader in the field of infectious diseases, has passed away at the age of 90. In 1962, Dr. Remington founded the Toxoplasmosis Serology Laboratory (TSL) at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute (PAMFRI), an internationally recognized laboratory that sets the gold standard for the study and diagnosis of toxoplasmosis—a parasitic disease particularly dangerous for pregnant women, their offsprings and patients with weak immune systems. The TSL was rededicated as the Dr. Jack S. Remington Laboratory for Specialty Diagnostics in November, 2019, to honor his 40 year career at PAMF. It serves as the reference laboratory for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Dr. Remington was head of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases while also working as a professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Stanford University and served as PAMF’s Marcus A. Krupp, M.D. Research Chair since 1986.

“Dr. Remington was a clinician extraordinaire in internal medicine and infectious diseases,” Jose Montoya, M.D., FACP, FIDSA and co-director of the Remington Lab, says. “Countless stories from all over the world detail his exceptional ability to diagnose patients with unsolved clinical illnesses. Through his direct patient care, Dr. Remington taught his trainees how to practice medicine with the highest standards and saved so many lives.”

Beyond Dr. Remington’s legacy of scientific discoveries, his work is amplified by more than 70 fellows who trained under him in his laboratory at PAMF and Stanford hospital. This legacy as a mentor was chronicled in the book We Were Fellows, published in 2002. In the book, each contributing fellow wrote about his/her life before, during and after their training under Dr. Remington. The most consistent theme of the fellows was that everything had to be done with the utmost sense of urgency, earning him the nickname “STAT JACK.

Beyond science and patient care, Dr. Remington was passionate about his family, fellows, music and extreme sports—including rock-climbing, skiing and wind surfing.

Dr. Remington is survived by his wife Françoise, children David Remington and Lynne Remington, Françoise’s children Matthieu Schumacher and Geraldine Strunsky, their five grandchildren (Aaron and Amanda Remington, Nathan Goldberg, Emilie Strunsky and Maximilian Schumacher), his godson Andrés Montoya and his first wife Lola Remington.