When "Giants Walked the Earth"

I thoroughly enjoyed your series of articles on the history of the Medical School. I, too, am a third generation graduate of this school, and was thoroughly imbued with its rich heritage. My grandfather was a member of the Class of 1899, and my father graduated in 1925. My first year there was one of much free-floating anxiety. I was one of three "legacies" in my class. Unfortunately the other two did not survive the first year.

I still recall the squeaking wooden floors of the West Medical Building. Changing classes in mid-morning I would descend the stairs under the disapproving gaze of both father and grandfather. Their unspoken question: "Why aren’t you doing better?"

In any event, with the combined efforts of Patton, Woodburn, Crosby, Nungester, Weller and countless others, I was sufficiently burnished that I was permitted to enter the clinical years.

Epidemiologist Thomas Francis Jr. announces from the stage of Rackham Auditorium on April 12, 1955 that the Salk polio vaccine is “safe, effective and potent.”

This was the period of Michigan medicine when "giants walked the earth." Dr. Alexander had just died, but Miller, Sturgis, Conn, Kahn (Reuben) and Kahn (Edgar), Coller, Badgley and Nesbitt were all in their heydays. Dean Furstenberg must have had some blackmail material on each of the department heads, because the junior clinical lectures were given almost exclusively by the chiefs and full professors. One of my most memorable days in the Medical School was the day of the announcement by Dr. Tommy Francis of the positive results of the polio vaccine study.

It took an additional five years of the Ann Arbor experience to qualify me as a relatively complete orthopedic surgeon. Although my son is a physician, he was not permitted the Michigan experience.

I have enjoyed every day of practice during the past 40-odd years and owe a debt of gratitude to the firm foundation provided to me, my father and my grandfather by your great institution.

Thomas F. Scott (M.D. 1958, Residency 1963)
Huntington, West Virginia

"He, George W. Hicks, Was the Senior Shown"

One day last week, when my husband’s copy of Medicine at Michigan arrived, he was amazed to see, on the inside of the back page, scenes from LIFE Magazine of 50 years ago. He, George W. Hicks (M.D. 1950), was the senior shown. At that time we had three small children, George was working nights, and his GI bill was either a thing of the past or woefully inadequate. A $300 scholarship from a medical society and a modest and unexpected legacy from my step-grandfather in England enabled George to be graduated. He was the first U-M Medical School student with a child to be accepted. When he entered medical school he had a chemical engineering degree from Michigan and had served four years in the Army, honorably discharged with the rank of major.

George W. Hicks, photographed by Alfred Eisenstadt for LIFE Magazine in 1950

As a family doctor, George practiced 22-and-a-half years in Pascagoula, Mississippi, six years in Grand Bay, Alabama, and seven-and-a-half years on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. At Pascagoula he delivered about 3,000 babies, had a large office practice, made house calls, had adventures in the Gulf of Mexico with the Coast Guard, and went up a gantry crane once at Ingalls Shipyard to pronounce a man dead. He also made hospital rounds twice a day. He practiced solo except at St. Croix, when he was an emergency room doctor for the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Health. For some years he raised Santa Gertrudis cattle on our farm in Grand Bay. While on St. Croix George was ordained a permanent deacon in the Catholic Church after studies at night for four years. We are the parents of six children. There has seldom been a boring time for we have had 17 homes since we married in 1940.

We wanted to let you know that it was good to be reminded of a time when we felt we were reaching a goal in spite of difficulties, confident of the future, and trusting in the next day.

Alice Brown Hicks
McDonough, Georgia

"One Might Wonder Why You Would Publish These Experiences"

Dr. Harry J. Schmidt, in "Alumni Reminiscences" (Fall 2000), reminded us of the admonition he heard as a medical student at Michigan, "Look to your right and to your left, one of you three will not be here to graduate." He went on to tell of receiving a D because of an addition error by the person who graded his final exam in anatomy. The professor agreed that an error had been made, but refused to correct it, and the dean refused to intervene.

One might wonder why you would publish these experiences. Did you find them amusing? Do they enhance the reputation of the Medical School? I think you should be ashamed of such events. Or is your arrogance so vast that any kind of deviant behavior that unfairly punishes or intimidates students can be laughed off under the rubric of, "Oh, well, that’s the way it was!"?

As the recipient of similar behavior I can assure you I didn’t find it funny then (1950), and I certainly don’t think it’s funny now, 50 years later.

Joel I. Hamburger (M.D. 1954)
West Bloomfield, Michigan

"Isadore Lampe Did Not Found the Department of Radiology"

In the article "The Deans on Canvas" (Fall 2000), Isadore Lampe is listed as the founder of the Department of Radiology. Dr. Lampe was a superb physician, radiotherapist, and true gentleman. It was an honor for me to be one of his residents. However, he did not found the Department of Radiology.

James G. Van Zwaluwenburg

Dr. William Martel’s The Distinguished History of Radiology at the University of Michigan correctly states that in 1917 Dr. James G. Van Zwaluwenburg became the first chairman of what was then the Department of Roentgenology.

Dr. Willis S. Peck was the first director of radiotherapy, serving from 1933 to 1939, when he came to Toledo, Ohio. It was my privilege to be associated in practice with Dr. Peck from 1964 until his retirement in 1972. Dr. Lampe succeeded Dr. Peck in 1939, and served as director of radiotherapy for 35 years.

Charles M. Klein (Residency 1962)
Jupiter, Florida

"Long Ago and Before Many Others, He Embraced Diversity…"

I want to thank Howard Markel for his work ("An Example Worthy of Imitation," Fall 2000). If we forget where we have been, we cannot find our future. I also want to express my joy at knowing that Horace C. Davenport is still contributing, and to have "Dr. ABC" know how important his quote "you live your life on the intellectual reserve accumulated during the first twenty-five years" has been to me. Another, "Michigan produces a high level of mediocrity," has kept me humble and cautious to this day. Dr. Davenport is one of a very few who remain powerful long after their lectures are lost.

Another of Dr. Davenport’s great contributions to the Medical School was his distaste for provincialism and his awareness that greatness could come from many sources. Long ago and before many others, he embraced diversity not only because it was right and noble, but because, as he so clearly recognized, it was healthy and productive as well.

On the same day that I read Dr. Markel’s wonderful piece I had just mailed my friend’s grandfather’s Homeopathy College sheepskin signed by President Angell to my first cousin, Eric Bates, M.D., of your cardiology faculty to forward to the Historical Center for the Health Sciences!

Grateful for your effort in recording and publishing our history, I am,

Randall R. Smith (M.D. 1971)
Redding, California
Rrsmith@chw.edu