“Lucky Luke”
By: Samia W. Borchers, MD
Louis Luke Barich, MD or “Lucky Luke” as he would sometimes nickname himself, was a super star! He was a real go-getter who made things happen and made those around him shine. His empty chair will represent a tremendous loss to the Ohio Dermatology Association. He was one of the early founders of our organization, past president of both the ODA and ODF, and treasurer for many years. He received the Distinguished Dermatologist award from the Ohio Dermatology Association and a volunteerism award from the American Academy of Dermatology. He had two emphases. The first was for the fiscal viability of our ODA organization. In the mid 1990’s our association had very limited resources. He was concerned that we needed to have enough funds to sponsor our own meetings in the future, without reliance on drug company support which could one day diminish. He along with other ODA leaders Drs. Charlie Heaton and Brett Coldiron established a goal of saving $1,000,000 in our ODF fund. Dr. Robert Brodell donated his office as headquarters which allowed a substantial savings from our using the OSMA facilities. After many years of careful allocation of our resources, the goal came into fruition a few years ago, much to Lou’s delight.
The second emphasis for Dr. Barich was his all consuming passion for educating the children about the hazards of tanning. In 1978, the German Wolff tanning bed came to the US to promote a “healthy” tan. This alarmed Dr. Barich and he paired his efforts with his dermatologist colleague Dr. Joe Hazel in Springfield. Lou always recruited his own Butler medical society for support and doctors of all specialties became involved in his missions. They helped establish an initial weak regulation on tanning beds in Ohio. By the 1990’s tanning and tanning bed use continued to increase and the public still did not seem to comprehend the damage they were causing their skin. This is when I met Dr. Barich, while we were both delegates to the OSMA. Year after year, he appealed to the OSMA at meetings with a booth, posters and brochures which served to both educate the other physicians and then finally pass a resolution to support the education of children about to the hazards of tanning. For impact, he made sure he used the terminology of radiation rays instead of ultraviolet rays to the skin.
At the time there were virtually no tools to educate about the hazards of tanning. This led to the Dayton Medical Alliance creating RAYS (Raising Awareness About Your Skin) project. We made our own educational first slide show turned into a CD with a teaching manual for the presenter. It was widely used for over 100,000 folks in the public including schools, nursing homes, physician and dental conferences, health care events, rotaries and even girl scouts. It was sold through a health education catalogue for about 6 years. The catalogue was international and made enough from sales to be a self-supported project. The CD was useful for impromptu educational talks and was given to all the dermatologists in the ODA. Dr. Barich made sure that sun and skin cancer videos were also distributed to schools throughout Ohio.
Tanning bed use continued and it became clear that education was not enough to curb its use especially for those most vulnerable under the age of 18 years. Lou concluded that the next step was regulation. After all, there are laws about smoking and drinking under age for protection so why not against tanning beds for minors? Since the OSMA supported our efforts, we were able to use their lawyer and lobbyist attorney Jeff Smith which was a huge asset. They recruited help from Lou’s local state legislator, Representative Courtney Combs who began the process of trying to legislate the banning of tanning beds for the use by children under the age of 18 in Ohio. This all brought media attention which led to many local news articles and TV news reports spreading the information about the hazards of tanning. This was all to benefit the cause and educate the public. Of course, Dr. Barich recruited all the dermatologists he could at the ODA. At one point, he tried to have every dermatologist send a letter to each of the 99 Ohio representatives. He said just sign one letter and his staff would clone 99 more. This strategy would inundate the representatives to take notice! Also, he recruited many of us to have signatures of support from patients for the tanning bed regulation. I presented over 500 signatures when I testified at a legislative committee meeting. In addition, the AAD President Diane Baker, many Ohio dermatologists and patients also spoke there. Science was on our side, but that was not enough when it comes to politics. Those opposed to the tanning bed restrictions included the tanning bed industry, woman’s rights since most of the businesses are women owned, libertarians who oppose any regulations, and surprisingly some parents who say the government is not going to tell them what to do with their children.
Eventually, Ohio enacted stronger rules for the underage tanning but not the complete ban that Dr. Barich wanted for minors. Sadly, his goal was not accomplished in his lifetime. On the upside, the template Dr. Barich started in Ohio was shared with other states and regulations throughout the country were enacted with some total bans under age 18.
Dr. Barich called himself a co-catalyst. He gave credit to everyone involved. For many years, he gave out appreciation certificates at the annual meeting to everyone who had a part in his projects.
Dr. Barich was a philanthropist. He quietly donated very generously to the Ohio Dermatology Foundation. In addition, he helped support the college tuition of over 30 students.
Dr. Barich still practiced dermatology at age 89-years-young until his recent passing. I once asked him why he did not retire and he answered that as long as he worked he had an identity and was still asked to do things like a news story about tanning. Truly, he loved what he did and he loved those around him.
Louis Luke Barich was born in Plum, Pennsylvania. While serving in the US Army Infantry, he was a clerk typist, surgical technician, and petroleum product analyzer. He was also a pharmacist. He graduated from the University of Pittsburg Medical School. He opened his dermatology office in Hamilton, Ohio and practiced for 56 years. In addition, to his dermatology leadership roles, he was president of the Butler County Medical Society, the Hamilton-Fairfield Academy of Medicine, and the Butler American Cancer Society.
RIP “Lucky Luke”- We were really the lucky ones!