Professor, University of South Florida College of Medicine

Ophthalmologist, Tampa VA

 

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY—Curtis Edward Margo, MD, was born in the heart of Hollywood. Yet despite such an auspicious start in life—living just a few blocks from the infamous intersection of Hollywood and Vine—he never found the glitz of Hollywood particularly alluring.

 

“My parents were raised during the Depression and the experience affected them their entire lives,” said Margo, whose family relocated to the San Fernando Valley when he was a toddler. “My father was the youngest of 16 children. His father died when he was very young; my dad’s early life growing up in New York City and Los Angeles was somber, to say the least, but he ended up a highly successful businessman.”

 

His father’s positive attitude served Margo well throughout his education and training, along with the realization that certain patterns of behavior start at an early age and carry through adult life.

 

“I’ve been a bibliophile since high school,” Margo said. “My fascination with books probably started even before that, but I wasn’t conscious of the effect that reading had on me until then. I have difficulty parting with a good book once I’ve finished it, but collecting books comes at a cost over the years. I have paid the price each time I move!”

 

When determining a career to pursue, Margo did find one path particularly tempting, though highly impractical. “I’d hoped to catch for Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he retired from baseball just as I turned 18,” joked Margo, who completed his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California in 1970.  

 

Throughout his studies at Emory University School of Medicine, pathology intrigued Margo because he understood it the least of all clinical specialties.

 

“I was interested in learning how pathologists could examine tissue under the microscope and predict the behavior of a disease,” he said. “I was also drawn to this specialty because it’s very visual. You look at patterns of cells under the microscope and try to make sense out of them. It’s also a core discipline essential to understanding every aspect of medicine and surgery.”

 

After completing a rotating internship in 1975 at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Margo studied pathology at Emory University and internal medicine at the University of Virginia. He then completed a residency in ophthalmology at the University of Florida, and a fellowship in ophthalmic pathology at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, DC.

 

While serving as an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in the early 1980s, he was medical director of pathology for the Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital of Louisiana, and an attending physician at Charity Hospital and Veterans Hospital in New Orleans. Margo returned to school to study public health and epidemiology at the University of South Florida (USF), while a faculty member at the medical school. He earned a master’s degree (MPH) in 1996.

 

A board-certified pathologist, Margo directs a specialty lab at the USF College of Medicine, where he’s a clinical professor of ophthalmology, and has an appointment in the department of pathology and cell biology. He practices ophthalmology clinically three days a week at the Tampa Veterans Hospital, and is a lecturer in ophthalmic pathology at Tulane Medical School.

 

His research interests are reflected in his publications, which over the last decade have dealt mainly with epidemiology, public health issues, drug surveillance studies, and traditional elements of anatomic pathology (so-called clinical-anatomic correlation).  

 

“I have one of the largest collections of pathology slides related to eye disease in the country,” said Margo. “They include everything from acanthamoeba keratitis and ocular leprosy to orbital zygomyosis. I’ve been collecting these cases along with clinical photographs of eye disease for 30 years. So far, I’ve copied about 5,000 pathology photographs into digital format, and have gone through about 10,000 glass slides, selecting the best 2,000 for teaching. I’m now looking at cataloging these slides and illustrations so others can use them as an educational resource.”

 

In his spare time, Margo usually reads or jogs, both for prolonged periods of time. “I read slower than I jog, which presents a problem for someone who can’t find enough hours in the day,” admitted Margo. Following the death of his wife 10 years ago, Doctor Margo’s academic interests took a backseat to family. Last year, his daughter, Ashley, graduated with honors from the University of Florida. She is now a graduate student in architecture at the University of Southern California. Midway through his career, Margo shifted part of his focus from reading to writing. After co-authoring and editing two medical textbooks, he began chronicling the history of American medicine as an extra-curricular activity at night, on weekends, and whenever he could find a couple of hours to spare. This pastime resulted in a book, Glass Half Full: an Informal History of American Medicine, which was published last year. It represents one of few single-volume books that cover the entire span of American medical history from colonial times to the present day, and is perhaps the only book that attempts to recount this history in a narrative fashion.

 

“Although the book was written for persons outside the field of medicine, my medical colleagues have given me enthusiastic feedback,” said Margo. “I find the subject of medical history endlessly fascinating.”