Robert Gorter played a significant role in setting up HIV/AIDS services in the Netherlands. He was attending physician (bed-side teaching to students and doctors in their specialty training) at ward 86 at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) from 1983 through 1993 in his function as Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California San Francisco Medical School (UCSF). From 1984 through 1992, quite a few doctors and researchers from Holland and Germany came to visit the AIDS Services at San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH). The AIDS Services at SFGH was the earliest and probably the most creative program in the world. Therefore, Ward 86 and all its outpatient services became a role model for many other countries, including Holland and Germany. Since Robert Gorter speaks both fluent Dutch (native speaker) and fluent German, he was always asked to guide all visitors from the Netherlands and Germany. Gorter also had visiting professors from Amsterdam (Joep de Lange) and Berlin (Professor l’Age) staying in his house in San Francisco. In return, Gorter often visited Amsterdam and if possible, attended the Parade in Amsterdam which were (of course) held in the canals.

Robert Gorter (left corner in white T-shirt) during the CSD parade in the large contingent of the HIV/AIDS services of the University of California San Francisco Medical School (UCSF) and San Francisco General Hospital in June 1996. At that time, Gorter was living in Berlin and had there his own Clinical Research Institute at the Free University (“Free” meaning that this university was originally founded in West Berlin during the Cold War) but would travel 4 to 6 times per year to San Francisco to meet the requirements of maintaining his full faculty position as Associate Clinical Professor.

Robert Gorter (left, in white T-shirt) during the CSD parade in the large contingent of the HIV/AIDS services of the University of California San Francisco Medical School (UCSF) and San Francisco General Hospital in June 1996. At that time, Gorter was living in Berlin and had there his own Clinical Research Institute at the Free University (“Free” meaning that this university was originally founded in West Berlin during the Cold War) but would travel 4 to 6 times per year to San Francisco to meet the requirements of maintaining his full faculty position as Associate Clinical Professor.