In 1907, Oertel returned to the United States when he was appointed director and chief pathologist of the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology in New York City.

In the 1880s, McGill's pathology department had secured an international reputation of excellence under Sir William Osler, who appointed Adami to succeed him.

He was held in great respect by his students, but he was unpopular with staff internists and surgeons as he strongly believed that pathology was not the handmaiden of medicine and surgery.

[2] His life centred on McGill University, and yet strangely he did not feel obliged to help his fellow staff members if it did not suit him, particularly when it involved cooperation with the research interests of the clinicians.

He was compliant in the Sir Henry Gray affair and later refused to help Wilder Penfield when he was looking for laboratory space for his neuropathology interests.