Goetzl, Franz R., 1914-1981

Dates

• Existence: 1914-1981

Biography

Franz Rudolf Goetzl, the son of Alfred Goetzl, M.D., was born in Vienna in 1914. An accomplished pianist and violinist, he completed his medical studies at the University of Vienna but had to emigrate in 1938 just before he would have received his medical degree there. After being awarded a M.S. and a Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology in 1942 by the Graduate School of Northwestern University, he was awarded a B. Med and a M.D. in 1944 by the Medical School of Northwestern University. Throughout his studies and research at Northwestern University, he was mentored by Andrew C. Ivy, M.D. for whom he maintained a life-long affection. In 1940, he married Shirley Schneider of Chicago, Illinois.  They had two children: Thomas M. Goetzl born in 1943 and Randall A. Goetzl born in 1946.  Shirley died in Oakland, CA in 1950.  In 1951, he married Jean Howden. They had son, Charles F. Goetzl born in 1953. Jean died in Oakland, California in 2007. From 1945 to 1952, Dr. Goetzl was Director of the Institute of Medical Research for the Permanente Foundation in Oakland, California. In addition to other professional organizations, he was a member of the American Physiological Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Medical Association. Beginning in the 1950s, at a time when medical schools classes were dominated by young, white men, generally of privileged backgrounds, Dr. Goetzl pursued a dream of establishing a new medical school which would welcome women, minorities, low-income applicants, and even older students. Ahead of his time, and despite his best efforts over the next decade and a half, he was unable to overcome powerful resistance to such a then radical concept. In 1971, he was made a Life-Member of the American Medical Society of Vienna. In 1975, he edited a pioneering examination of the relationship between boredom and society, Boredom: Root of Discontent and Aggression. Dr. Franz Goetzl practiced medicine in Oakland, California from 1951 until his death in Berkeley, California in 1981.

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