Kathryn Arnow Collection of the President's Biomedical Research Panel Records

The President's Biomedical Research Panel was established in 1975 to review and assess the conduct, support, policies, and management of biomedical and behavioral research as conducted through programs of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA). Their report was issued to the U.S. Congress in 1976.

Kathryn Smul Arnow was born in 1918, in New York City, to Dr. Josef and Ethel Lubell Smul. Kathryn graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree from Barnard College, and received her master of arts degree from Columbia University. Kathryn began a long and illustrious career in 1941 as an economist for the War Production Board. After the war, she conducted case studies of policy-making in the federal government for the Inter-University Case Program in Washington, DC. In 1954, she moved to the National Science Foundation (NSF), where she worked as a Senior Staff Associate in the Division of Science Resource Studies, and was a delegate to the Working Group on Science and Statistics of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Paris. During this time, Kathryn also spent a year as a Federal Executive Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Following her career at NSF, she changed her focus to health policy, and became Chief of the Program Planning Branch in the office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health. After retiring from government service in 1977, Kathryn's area of study evolved to bioethics and consideration of ethical issues in the physician-patient relationship. She presented her paper "Physician and Patient: Can They Converse?" at the Fifth International Congress on Ethics and Medicine in London, and had articles appear in the professional publications Research Policy, the International Journal of Technology Management, and Science. She was a visiting Fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit, Sussex University, England, and participated in the Washington Metropolitan Bioethics Network and the National Institute of Health Ethics Colloquia. She served on the Board of Home Health Care Partners of Washington, DC, and was a member of the Hastings Center, The Kennedy Institute of Ethics, The Society for Health and Human Values, and the Society for Social Studies of Science. Kathryn consulted widely and travelled the world with her loving companion of 38 years, Philip Hemily, Ph.D., an international science advisor. Together they shared a passion for public policy, art, music, family, and travel, and their professional endeavors took them to Australia, New Zealand, and all countries of Western Europe, including Belgium, where, for six years, Mr. Hemily was Assistant Secretary General to NATO, and Kathryn wrote in the field of bioethics. Previously, Kathryn was married to Philip Arnow, U.S. Department of Labor economist and accomplished artist, who died in 1972. In addition to Mr. Hemily, Kathryn is survived, loved, and missed by her daughter, Amy Arnow Robinson (Karl) of Carlisle, PA; sons, Michael Arnow (Susan) of Silverdale, WA and Ethan Arnow (Anne-Marie) of Brisbane, Australia; six grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. Private services will be conducted at the convenience of the family.

Published by The Washington Post on Aug. 19, 2012.