Wife of a world-renowned dermatologist. Fund at The Trust supports the health of older adults and teenagers.
Leone Scott Wise (1891-1983)
Leone N. Flossie Scott was born April 4, 1893, in Marion, Indiana, one of Susan and Seldon Scott’s five children. In 1912, she moved to New York City, where she met a young doctor. The following year, she married Dr. Fred Wise, a clinical professor of dermatology and syphilology at Columbia University and chief of clinic of the skin and cancer unit of New York Post-Graduate Medical School and Hospital.
Fred Wise was born in Hungary in 1881 to Mor Weisz and Regina Kleinsohn, who immigrated to New York in 1888. He graduated in 1904 from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. When he retired in 1947, a colleague, Dr. Isadore Rosen, wrote a tribute, praising his “unimpaired vigor and brilliance of mind.” She said his “40 or more years were epoch-making in the development and advancement of dermatology.”
Fred collaborated with two other renowned dermatology specialists, Dr. John Fordyce and Dr. George MacKee, to study and report on numerous unusual skin conditions. Lichen ruber moniliformis, a rare skin disease, is known as the Wise-Rein condition, named for Fred Wise and his associate, Charles R. Rein. He was among the first dermatologists to use the X-ray as a therapeutic measure to treat various skin ailments.
During his career, Fred published more than 100 articles, many of which were quoted in textbooks on dermatology. He was associate editor of the Journal of Cutaneous Diseases for many years, then in 1931, he became editor of “The Year Book of Dermatology and Syphilology.” Dermatologists, not only in this country but also worldwide, regarded the yearbook as a valuable text. He was a member of the New York Academy of Medicine and the Medical Society of the State of New York, and corresponding member of six foreign dermatological societies.
He was three-time president of the Manhattan Dermatological Society; and president of the New York Dermatological Society twice. In 1933, he was elected president of the American Dermatological Association. When Fred died in 1950, the president of the German Dermatological Society sent condolences, reflecting that “his entire lifework has enriched dermatology throughout the world.”
Leone survived him by more than 30 years. She died in November 1983 at age 90.
Her will established a fund in The Trust to help provide care and companionship for homebound older adults and to aid teenagers with emotional difficulties or dealing with substance use.