Warner Slack was a very close and good friend. He was one of fewer than 15 full time faculty in medicine assembled by Howard Hiatt at the former Beth Israel Hospital in the late 1960s, and he interviewed me when I was applying to lead the new primary care efforts. Always a twinkle in his eye, ready to argue any point, focused, but also a fine...

Warner, When we first met at the BI almost 50 years ago, our friendship was sealed (and has steadily grown from there). You have been a dear friend and colleague from Day 1. One vignette defines who you are as a person. In the early 70's you were selected by Howard Hiatt to Chair the Intern Selection Committee, and you asked me to join the...

Warner, Vimla and I are distressed to hear that you are ill and in the hospital. I have many fond memories of our interactions, professional and personal, over the years, and often reminisce about the "good old days" in Boston and at informatics events. We will be thinking of you and hoping that you feel better soon. With great...

Dear Carolyn and Warner, We are missing you. Our thoughts and prayers are with you everyday. At Sunday brunch, I was looking for Warner’s smiling face. Your presence at the Village offered welcome with medical support and like ‘knit-wits’ gentle gestures of love and concern. With our love, Susan and Dave

Dear Dr Slack, I’m sorry to hear about your illness. I would like to let you know about the impact you made on my career. We met in the summer of 2012 when I carried out a research project at BIDMC. I was in Boston for just two weeks when you came to me and asked about healthcare in the Netherlands. And somehow we managed to talk for more than...

A mighty tree has fallen in the forest. On behalf of the Leeming family, and remembering my father Brian Leeming who worked with Warner for two decades since coming from New Zealand, I extend my sincerest condolences to the Slack family. I was privileged to connect with him a couple of times these last few years, and the extraordinary man my...

Dear Warner - Our thoughts are with you on this birthday and every day. We miss you very much here at the Village and send our love and lots of hugs to you and Carolyn. Sara & Bob

Anybody who has ever met Warner knows his heart. He is the most genuine, unpretentious and kind-hearted person I have ever met. Seeing him and listening to him has always been so inspiring and motivating to me. His deep sense of gratitude for the smallest of things and the warmest greetings no matter how many times you meet him during the day...

21 years ago, I was a young military doc running the hills in Israel, fascinated with how "computers", as they were known at the time, could change healthcare. I took a 3-day leave from my unit, flew over to Boston (by invitation of Charlie S) and walked into Warner's office (sweaty palms and all) wondering if I was the only...

Warner, We need you. We appreciate all you've done for healthcare informatics. And there is more for you to do. I'm reminded of Wordsworth poem, "London, 1802): Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and...

Warner (and Carolyn): I so enjoyed reading through the comments your friends and colleagues have made. I'm not surprised at their portrayal of you as the ideal patient-centered doctor, a born healer whose humanity comes through to all his patients. You have appeared that way to me. I so appreciate the interest you have been taking in my...

Warner, You have been an inspiration to many, me included. I have so much enjoyed our Thursday lunch discussions over the years and look forward to some more of them. So please get better! Bob Brown

Warner, Best wishes from Salt Lake City. I still remember the days when we were very active in taking new and challenging Clinical Informatics tasks. You, Howard Bleich and Octo Barnett at Harvard were the "thought leaders" and kept people like Homer Warner, Al Pryor, Paul Clayton and I on the right track. Hope you are getting along...

Warner was one of the first people I met when I started at BIDMC. He helped me in so many ways: grants, mentorship, and above all those wonderful conversations: about the sizes of things, healthcare outcomes, and so many fantastic cognitive biases. What a wonderful scientist you were, Warner. What a wonderful human being. Wherever you are now,...

Dear Warner, I am very sorry to learn that you have been hospitalized. It causes me a little sadness that you are going through this. Please stay strong and have a speedy recovery. I am sure you will be out of the hospital very soon and be with us again. Cheer up, take care and take rest. Please let me know if there is anything I can do. Best...

Dear Warner, Alice and i hope you are having a reasonably enjoyable birthday. We miss you. Although we have known you only a short time, we immediately came to like and estimate you very much. We both think you are one of the most decent and humane people we have ever met. We hope we can be friends yet awhile. P&A

He called Octo, my boss and asked to use some of my code in Paperchase. Realize that at that one literature search engines were not free. He gave me 400 hrs of Paperchase time for my contributions which I cherished. He was always a gentleman and he was always gracious. I remember him showing me around the center at the BI and he was both proud...

Dear Warner and Carol, I am sorry to hear that you are having this trouble. Please accept my most sincere wishes for a speedy recovery of both body and spirit.

When I think of Warner I think of ...warm welcomes... legitimizing patients as a part of the care team...Carolyn...challenges to always be better...respect...integrity...laughter... friends...generativivity...engagement... &, of course, “the patient is the most under-used resource in health care”. Warner, do not let them under-use you!!!...

Cher Warner, you and Caroline are the first Villagers we met when we were visiting Lasell ...you two are one of the reasons we came. You have welcomed not only us, but our family, going to Danielle’s concerts among other things. Through your genuine warmth and caring, you have been our model for how to live in a community, a transformative...

Dear Warner, I hope your "secret shopper" visit to the hospital is short and helps you to continue your outstanding work of informatics improving the care of patients. Best wishes. Nancy

Warner and Caroline -- we can't be with you today in person but in spirit we are indeed with you all the way. Heck of a way to celebrate your birthday anniversary but the love from your family and friends offers some compensation. WARM GOOD WISHES, AND MORE!!

Warner, You have had such a profound and positive impact on my life. Thank you for offering me my first real job, and thank you for being my second father during my post-college years. I will never forget my first post-college Thanksgiving (way back in 1983!) when you and Carolyn (along with Charlie) were kind enough to include me in your...

Dear Warner, When you entered the Lasell College and Village family, you added class, intellectual weight, and ultra generous support to our community, its members and to me. Thinking of you and Carolyn often, and wishing you a birthday of peace and comfort. Love, Michael

I met Warner and Carolyn at Lasell Village some years ago. We always greeted each other warmly in the hall, bemoaning the state of the current world. When Pete Seeger died a few years ago, Warner insisted that we honor Pete by standing in the lobby of the dining room at Lasell, and singing We Shall Overcome. Warner was a mensch and will be...

Dear Warner and Carolyn: Don and I have recently spent a month in Sarasota Memorial Hospital and sincerely hope you are receiving the same excellent medical care. I recall fondly our first meeting in Aspen when I heard your presentation on The Automated Patient History. Your warmth and kindness dealing with patients has flavored our friendship...

Dear Warner, We all salute you on your birthday! Warm good wishes and happy thoughts are heading your way from your friends at the Village. Cheers and Hugs, Mary Anne Tuohey

Dear Warner, I will always treasure our lunches in the old cafeteria when the BI was much smaller and we tried to tackle Nixon and his ilk. Your wisdom, warmth and good humor are irreplaceable. Mark

Warner, Your optimism infused the CCC crew from the original datacenter in the Lawry Building, diesel fuel and all, to the present. Hope you are getting the best support and recover soon. Marilyn

We knew Dr Warner Slack to be such a warm, generoious , kind and loving soul. He and Carolyn opened their home to our family during a very difficult fortnight in our lives. We had taken our son to Boston Children’s Hospital for heart surgery. Coming from Perth Australia, Warner and Carolyn stepped into our lives to give us their support. Our...

Gregarious, idealistic, forward looking, caring, loving, generous and impactful are a few of the superlatives that come to mind in thinking about Warner. I remember my first Slack sighting at Washington U in St. Louis, when I was a fellow, and the then Chair of Medicine, Dave Kipnis was hosting a recruitment visit for two computer medicine docs...

Although I have only known you a short time, I think about you and Caroline every day when I go into 80 C. Positive wishes are with me all of these times . You have always been so welcoming, supportive and friendly. Reading many of the good wishes on this blog, I only wish that I had known you sooner. Fondly, Louise Freedman

Addendum Warner, I just read the messages from your alumni and friends- hope you don’t mind. What wonderful tributes and what a great and large effect on so many lives! Bask in them and know you’ve made a very large footprint. Liz

Warner Throughout the years I've known you, you have been such an inspiration to me. My latest grant using patient preferences in healthcare just got funded by the NLM. It focuses on data science as a tool for making care more patient-centered. In particular, the work helps physicians "profile" patients based on patterns in their...

Warner, so sorry to hear that you are in the hospital. I hope you are feeling better soon. Our story started in 1986 when you gave me a chance to work as your assistant. I leaned so much over the 24 years we worked together. Your parience and knowledge truly helped my career. Your sense of humor made coming to work everyday so easy. I enjoy to...

Warner, You have been a leader of and inspiration to the biomedical informatics community for more than half a century. You have, at every moment, acted as a gentleman and a scholar. Wishing you a speedy return to health, and I hope your doctors have had the good sense to install a LINC nearby to help follow your progress. Fondly, Ken

Dr. Slack was one of the first individuals I met in the healthcare IT world when I transitioned into the space in 2006. He gave me a copy of Cybermedicine at that meeting, and I still carry the guiding principles from that book into the work we're doing at Kyruus today. His legacy as a true pioneering thought leader will no doubt continue...

Dear Warner In my more than 50 years at the BI I have met many great original thinkers, many great physicians and many great scientists -- as well as a few, like you, that were outstanding in all three. I have benefited from your friendship and still remember some of our non medical discussions (e.g. the poor performance of the SAT as opposed...

Warner, I’m so sorry to hear you’re in the hospital. It has been such a joy to learn from you about the early days of informatics. Your thoughtful, and at times delightfully humorous, approach to user centered design serves as an example for us all. Wishing you all the best, Jonathan

Linda and I are forever thankful to count you and Carolyn as friends. We will “hold you in the light” in the spirit of the Quaker greeting. Thank you for being my teacher. You are an exemplar of Plutarch’s adage that “Teaching is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

Hi, Warner.... We both have birthdays coming up in the next week or so, and in our ninth decade we can't expect them to be the best ever for either of us. I can't tell you how sorry I am that you've had to endure so many trials in the past few months. What I can tell you, though, is that the best break of my eighty-some years was...

Hi Warner, It is such a pleasure to know you. You are a good role model for showing respect to all the residents of Lasell Village. Love Jean and Peter

Warner, we are all thinking about you and wishing you WEll. Please do come back to us sooñ, And HAPPY BIRTHDAY these are a few villagers singing Jane Hyman

Dear Warner, we have been thinking and talking, most lovingly, about you for many days now. We wish we could give you the gift of health but are powerless. Please accept our love and deep appreciation

Warner you made me understand the word colleague, and the words "patient care". Those three words have followed me through the years,( wish others remembered), May I offer you my Thanks for your sage advice? OH and I forgot to thank you for the night you spent up with me getting the "D..m Phone book "Go Live"",...

Warner, We first met in 1976 when I came to the lab to interview for a programming position. I had just read an article in Psychology Today regarding experiments with computer assisted soliloquy conducted by you and your brother. I was intrigued by the article and was delighted when you hired me. Thus began forty years working together and with...

Dear Professor, I send you my affection and gratitude, wishing you a fast recovery! You have been an unique mentor and inspiration - an example of wisdom and kindness. I am grateful for the welcoming and the moments I had the privilege to chat with you during my fellowship at DCI.

I remember Warner being annoyed with some paper we had written in the late 80s or early 90s (I don’t remember why now), and I was about to meet him in person and had my misgivings. What a warm reception I got from him, and what a warn reception I got every year I saw him at AMIA or elsewhere. He ended up certainly being one of my mentors on...

Warner, Sorry to hear about your illness. It has truly been an honor to work with you and what a wonderful way to start my career in informatics is to learn from the man who helped start it all. I’m grateful for your help and advice during my training and am humbled to have my name alongside yours on the paper we just published. Get well soon...

Dear Warner, I am very sorry to hear about your illness. I have the best memories of my time as a fellow at the Division of Clinical Informatics, always receiving great advice and feedback from you. I will never forget your help with my PhD research and my immigration process. I hope you get better before I finish writing this message! Federico...

Dear Warner As a young doctor who had embarked on an informatics doctorate in the 1980's, your work was for me a rare beacon in what often felt like an otherwise solitary and futile mission. It is only because we could stand on your shoulders, that many of us got started and together helped to create the digital world we find ourselves in...

Warner, So sorry to hear you're in the hospital. I along with a lot of others appreciate the opportunity you and Howard gave me working in CCC and starting my IS career some 37 years ago. Wishing you a speedy recovery. Ellen

Sorry I missed sending greetings on your birthday yesterday - but I think of you every day and say a prayer that you (and Carolyn) will know that you are never alone. With gratitude and thanks for all you have done to help me (and probably every one else at Lasell Village)! You are the best! LIs

When I met Warner a few days into starting with DCI in 2008, he had his close friend and colleague Dr Howard Bleich seated near him in our old offices at the Feldberg building. He and Howard were kind and cordial — and welcoming, of course. It was a little later that day that Warner, introduced to me as a renowned physician, scientist and...

Hi, Warner, Emily has sent you a lovely poem, and it's from both of us. But I want to say directly that you are a marvelously warm and friendly person and that you went out of your way to welcome us when we arrived as newbies last fall. I feel lucky to have met you and to at least begin to know you. Thanks for all this. Ed

Dear Warner: Sick is one thing but 'hospital sick' is yet another as I discovered last year. Very sorry to hear this news and I wish you a speedy and full recovery. Cordially, Don

Dear Warner, I'm so sorry to hear that you're in the hospital. I would guess that many wouldn't know that the scope of your influence includes the sickest and smallest of BIH/BIDMC patients: NICU babies. Your promotion and tools to provide family education and support have had a foundational effect on our program. I hope that you...

Warner, I’ll never forget the time Joan Ash and I had the opportunity to interview you and Howard. It was so great to hear all the old stories and get to know you both in some small way. It always makes my day to run into you at AMIA or the ACMI dinner. Best wishes to you, Dean

Warner I will always think of you as the anti traditional traditionalist.You epitomize the traditional values of family, justice, loyalty...and yet you easily saw through the hypocracy in academia and educational testing. Our friendship over the last 50 years has been one of the truly bright spots in my life. I know we will see each other again...

Warner—very sorry to hear you are ill! You are one of my heroes, especially around your work re getting patients more engaged. Hoping you are better soon—David Bated

A friend posted on Facebook a screen capture of Beth Israel Deaconess dept of medicine chair Mark Zeidel's column . I hope this link will show it for everyone. (Ideally someone can link to the original, or paste in the full text.)...

Dr. W. Slack, whom I have known since 1971 is still a treasure to me. He was totally appreciative of my administrative support of the house staff program His concern for the house staff was evident in his interactions with them . He had excellent rapport with members and staff of his division .( Only yesterday, I was telling my 14 y.o. grandson...

Dr. Slack, get well soon. I will never forget your precious gift of your signed book, Cybermedicine and how generous and welcoming you were. I will always refer what you keep teaching us "patients are the least utilized resource in healthcare". Please get better soon ... All the way from sunny Kuwait!!

Warner, sorry to hear you're in the hospital! You are one the original "Cybermedicine" leaders, serving as inspiration to all and giving us guidance as our field was born. I still treasure my signed copy of the book! Best wishes always, Dan

Hi Warner, I am sorry to learn that you are ill. My memories of our lunches and discussions together are a treasure. Your contributions to the BI are a great legacy. You brought the first African-american housestaff to the BI. and you were the first to tell me about this guy named Obama. I certainly hope you recover soon. My best wishes Best...

Hi Warner, I was so glad to sit next to you during an AMIA conference and to hear your insights about empowering patients. I hope you get better soon! Best wishes, Chunhua

I first met Warner in 1976. At the time, he and Howard Bleich were starting to computerize the Beth Israel Hospital. He was kind and welcoming. Several years later during my residency, he and Howard published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine on PaperChase, a program to search the Biomedial literature. It was about time for me...

Yesterday on my way to a rainy early afternoon movie “Won’t you be my neighbor?" I got a call I had been expecting but didn’t want. The caller ID said Warner Slack, and while it was possible he would be calling, I heard the voice of Charlie Slack. After writing a few emails, Donna and I went to the movie about Fred Rogers. I cried out loud...

Warner and I are overwhelmed with the Wonderful messages from all of you. Reading them to him has been a joyous part of each day. Warner has loved his time with each of you and thanks you Deeply for being such a special part of his life. Warm wishes to all of you and much gratitude from me, Warner’s wife of 62 amazing years. Carolyn

Hi Warner, Been thinking of you and sending love and prayers. May your birthday be as special as you are. Please remember that you are loved more than ever. Take care. Carla

Dear Warner, I can only add to the many glowing tributes to you both as an Informatician,, a colleague, and a friend. Your warm hearted spirit and wisdom are a joy to us all. I have known you since the mid-1960s, when I visited you in Wisconsin, and have followed all your pioneering achievement since then. I wish you all the best during your...

You've come a long way from: Effect of size and number of brain cells on learning in larvae of the salamander, Triturus viridescens. Science 1955 Oct 14; 122(3172):692-3. PMID: 13255909. I do miss working with you and Howard. Good things happened on your watch. Thanks! Bob

Warner is one of my heroes, a pioneer in informatics in its earliest years. Moreover, he's a gentle, wonderful human being that I feel fortunate to come to know a bit in the past several years.

On June 15th. the University of Chicago -- one of our most selective, prestigious universities -- announced it would no longer require SAT scores with an application for admission. "SAT or ACT optional" a decade's long campaign for Warner and many others. Bill Hiss, perhaps the national leader from admissions experience and...

Warner, you and Carolyn are in my thoughts daily.. You have set another example of warmth and friendship that is as important here at Lasell Village as you have in the medical world. We are fortunate to have you both here.

Dear Warner, I hear today is your birthday and though it may not be the best one you ever had, I hope you will find some joy in the many thoughts and wishes that come your way from Lasell Village, including my most heartfelt wishes for your recovery. You and Carolyn are kind and hospitable and it was always fun to sit with you in the Cafe and...

Dear Warner Frankly, it has been quite an honor and pleasure to have known you. Your visionary outlook and graceful embodiment of what Dr. Osler had called "Aequanimiltas" are just as inspiring as your accomplishments and pioneering work. You have been, without any question, the role models' role model. Wishing you full recovery...

Dear Warner, I am so happy to be able to write to you. That I miss you is an understatement. I clearly recall your closing words after our first dinner together and many others---"to be continued" I thought they we very special. I have tried to keep up to date on your progress and think of you every day. Our talks about the...

Dear Warner, It's been an honor to have had the opportunity to work with you and to be mentored by you. Lessons I have learned from you on patient empowerment, and the need for computer/ technology to be helpful for patients and clinicians alike are principles I will carry with me throughout my professional career. Your kindness, open...