Guy Benrubi, M.D.
Just reading about a typical workday in the life of Guy Benrubi, M.D., clinician, professor and researcher, is exhausting for most of us.
He leaves home by 6:15 a.m., scrubs for surgery by 7:15, then checks in to his departmental office to review e-mail and address administrative problems and before seeing private patients from 10 a.m. to noon. Lunch, usually over conferences or meetings, ends by 1:30 p.m., when he returns to surgery or attends budget or administrative meetings. At 4:30 p.m., he conducts lectures for medical students and at 5:30 returns to his office in the dean’s suite, where he discusses the day’s events with UF Jacksonville’s head administrator. Benrubi finally leaves campus around 6:30 p.m. Whew, you say! Wait, there’s a catch. When he leaves campus he returns directly home only about 50 percent of the time – the other 50 percent he attends professional and philanthropic meetings in Jacksonville.
“I do this for self-preservation,” Benrubi says with a smile. “There’s some excellent research out there that shows that the more involved we are, the fewer illnesses and colds we suffer, and in the last 10 years I’ve probably had only two sick days.”
This incredible, nonstop involvement in career and community earned Benrubi the prestigious Silver Medallion at the 35th Humanitarian Awards dinner of the National Conference for Community and Justice, held May 26 in Jacksonville. Also honored were the late Tillie Fowler, Toni Crawford and Ronnie Ferguson.
Founded in 1927 as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, NCCJ is a human relations organization dedicated to promoting understanding and respect and fighting bias, bigotry and racism. The Jacksonville group has been honoring local humanitarians since 1970.
During his 23 years in Jacksonville, Benrubi has served his family, his faith, UF, the Jacksonville community and his profession. Community involvement, leadership and service are part of him, his family and his beliefs.
“My parents taught me that you feel better when you feel that you’re accomplishing something,” he explains. “I strongly believe that the more involved all of us are in our communities, the more freedom we have in our society.”
Benrubi earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New York University and his medical degree from the State University of New York/Downstate Medical Center. He and his wife, Patti, have one son, Daniel. He started his medical and UF career in 1975 as an intern reporting to Robert Nuss, M.D., now College of Medicine senior associate dean and associate vice president for health affairs, Jacksonville.
“Dr. Benrubi is a physician, educator and community leader of multiple talents with a cosmopolitan view and humanitarian goals,” Nuss said. “He’s been a credit to our profession from the time I first met him in 1975, when he was one of my interns, until now, as my associate. He is most deserving of the NCCJ Humanitarian Award.”
A gynecologic oncologist, Benrubi has trained more than 150 physicians in the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology while operating his own practice with UF at Shands Jacksonville. He was named OB/GYN chair in 1996 and became associate dean for clinical affairs of the Jacksonville campus in 2002.
In fact, Benrubi has trained the majority of all OB/GYN doctors practicing in the Jacksonville area. Former residents and other physicians frequently contact him regarding his expertise in the care of OB/GYN patients with complex clinical problems and for his insights in the area of medical ethics, a field in which he formally trained and has achieved a reputation as an authority. The North Florida Ethics Council also seeks his advice.
His commitment to education has earned him numerous awards, including the Robert J. Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching (1984 and 2000) and the UF College of Medicine Outstanding Student Teaching in OB/GYN Award for the consecutive years spanning from 1992 (when the award was created) to the present. In 2003, the UF College of Medicine Jacksonville awarded him the Louis S. Russo Award for Outstanding Professionalism in Medicine.
He also serves as president of both the Academy of Medicine of Duval County and the Florida Obstetrical & Gynecological Society and is a past president of the Duval County Medical Society. A member of Leadership Jacksonville Class of 1993, he served on Leadership Jacksonville’s board of directors from 2000-03 as well as president of Jewish Family and Community Services from 1994 to 1996. He was responsible for JFCS becoming the region’s lead adoption agency and the lead agency for Ryan White funds. He’s also serving his second year as president of the Jacksonville Jewish Federation. He also served as board member of the Jacksonville Jewish Center from 1999 to 2002.
For his many accomplishments and his tireless devotion to bettering himself, his profession, his community and his world, Guy Benrubi takes home this year’s NCCJ Humanitarian Award – and a sense of personal satisfaction.
“I’m humbled and proud to accept this award,” Benrubi says, “especially from the NCCJ, an organization that strives to keep this country committed to its ideals.”