Samuel S. Riven was a superb physician with more than a half century of service to his patients and the Department of Medicine of Vanderbilt University. Born and educated in Canada, Saul Riven was a graduate of McGill University and was trained in Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. When he came to Vanderbilt in 1930 as one of the first members of the clinical faculty of the Department of Medicine, he devoted each of his mornings to the teaching programs of the department, greatly enriching the instruction of students in the outpatient clinic for many years. He was associated in the education, patient care, and research programs of the Department of Medicine. A man of many dimensions, Sam Riven was noted for his generosity, his instinct for scholarship, and his devotion and loyalty to the Department of Medicine.