Basic HTML Version
AJHM Summer 2013 47
Volume 106 Number 2
Hahnemann Award for Teaching Presented to
Karl Robinson, MD
President’s Mesage
A
t the October 2012 meeting of the American Insti-
tute of Homeopathy Board of Trustees, we decided
to present the Samuel Christian Hahnemann Award for
Teaching to Karl Robinson, MD. The AIH Board presents
this award to those who have given outstanding service to
the homeopathic community through their teaching. When
thinking about Karl as a possible recipient of this award,
we thought about Karl’s role in intro-
ducing the teachings of Prafull Vijaya-
kar, MD (Hom), to the AIH community
of homeopaths. We also thought about
his founding of and teaching for the Ho-
meopathy School of the Americas, with
branches in El Salvador, Guatemala, and
Honduras, as well as his founding of the
New Mexico School of Classical Home-
opathy. In addition to the above, Karl
has been a frequent presenter at semi-
nars throughout his years of work as a
homeopathic physician.
Last October, we had no idea how
events would unfold at the time of our
February 2013 seminar. Due to the sud-
den illness of Dr. Prafull Vijayakar days
before our scheduled seminar, we initially
canceled the seminar. When our members encouraged us to
look into other options, it was largely through the efforts of
Karl that a seminar did occur at the scheduled time, with
Karl as one of the co-presenters. Dr. Max Jenny, a longtime
student of Prafull Vijayakar and a friend of Karl, was able
to fly from Germany to be a co-presenter through the gener-
osity of Karl. For those who attended the seminar but had
never known of Karl’s many accomplishments as a teacher,
surely this seminar illustrated how much Karl deserves this
award. (See the article in this issue by Richard Moskowitz,
MD, DHt, and the poem by Nicholas Nossaman, MD, DHt,
to read more about this seminar.)
Karl received his B.A. in English from Yale University
in 1960. After teaching in Nigeria 1960 - 1962, he turned
to newspaper reporting. During a trip to Gabon, Africa, in
1967, he burned his leg on the manifold of his motorcycle. It
became infected. Through serendipity he was in the vicinity
of theAlbert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné. He stopped.
The doctors decided the infection was serious and admitted
him. Though Dr. Schweitzer had died in 1965, his daughter
was working as the hospital administrator. She loaned Karl
two of the few books by her father in English. Touched and
inspired deeply by Schweitzer’s life and work, Karl decided
to become a doctor. Having shown no previous interest in
science, he had to complete all the requisite science courses
which he did in one year at the University of Pennsylvania.
His medical degree, appropriately, came from the Hahne-
mann Medical College in Philadelphia in
1972. He went on to complete a residency
in Internal Medicine in Harlem Hospital,
New York. Disenchanted early on by con-
ventional medicine, Karl came to homeopa-
thy and has studied widely under leading
homeopaths in Greece, Germany, Belgium,
Holland, England, Canada, and India. In
addition to his clinical work and teaching,
Karl’s journalistic talents served him (and
the homeopathic community) well when he
was the Editor of this journal, for which he
continues to serve as Assistant Editor. He
has been a contributor to this journal, hav-
ing submitted interesting cases and book
reviews as well as other articles.
While all of the above attests to Karl’s
accomplishments and contributions to the
homeopathic community, it is difficult to convey the depth
of his passion for homeopathy through a simple recitation
of his achievements. The person that I see is a homeopathic
physician who, at a time in life when many physicians have
retired, continues to travel to Mumbai for two-week visits
twice or thrice yearly since 2008 to observe Dr. Prafull Vi-
jayakar in his Predictive Homeopathy clinic. When I had
the opportunity (through his generosity) to travel with him to
Mumbai last June, I was struck by one of his comments ‒ he
said, “I will continue to come to Mumbai until I learn how
to do what Vijayakar does.” This comment illustrates well
that being a true teacher also means being a perennial stu-
dent. For Dr. Karl Robinson, there is apparently an unending
desire to learn and to share what he has learned with oth-
ers. Those of us in the homeopathic community are indeed
fortunate to have such a passionate and generous teacher in
our midst.
With much appreciation,
Irene Sebastian, MD, PhD
President, American Institute of Homeopathy