Glen E. Gresham

Dr. Albert C. Rekate joined the UB medical school faculty in 1954. Among his numerous contributions, he established the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, serving as acting chair from 1972—75, and also played a key role in the creation of the UB School of Health Related Professions (HRP), which ultimately gave rise to the School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Dr. Rekate served as Acting Dean of HRP from 1965-66 and Associate Dean from 1966-74. In 2002, Dr. Rekate and his wife Linda endowed the Dean's Award Fund in the School of Public Health and Health Professions and contributed seed money to develop an undergraduate core research curriculum in the school.

A 1940 graduate of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Dr. Rekate completed his residency at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital—now Erie County Medical Center—and served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1944-47.

Dr. Rekate was active in numerous medical societies. He serving as president of the Western New York Heart Association, the Medical Union, the Buffalo Academy of Medicine and UB’s Medical Alumni Society.

Over the years, Dr. Rekate was a generous benefactor of the health sciences at UB, including endowing the Albert and Elizabeth Rekate Chair of Rehabilitation Medicine in 1993. In 2011, they endowed the Glenn E. Gresham Visiting Professorship in Rehabilitation Science.

Dr. Rekate held a variety of administrative posts at E.J. Meyer Hospital, among them Associate Director of Medicine from 1957-63 and director of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine from 1964-69. As director of the hospital from 1970-73, he played an important role in the hospital’s transition to the present day ECMC.

Dr. Albert Rekate died at the age of 93 on February 6, 2010. His long-term support of the University at Buffalo is continued by his wife, Linda Rekate.