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Lauren Vedder Ackerman was born in Auburn, New York in 1905. In 1927, he received a bachelor's degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He received his medical degree at the University of Rochester in 1932. In 1942, following residences in California and Massachusetts, he became Chief of Laboratories at Ellis Fischel State Cancer Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. He would become the medical director of that institution.

In 1948, he was appointed professor of pathology at Washington University School of Medicine where he taught for 25 years. He also served as the director of the school's Division of Surgical Pathology and as pathologist-in-chief at Barnes Hospital. Later in his career, he joined the faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1973.

Dr. Ackerman contributed more than 200 papers and abstracts and wrote several textbooks that are standards in the pathology field. In 1947, he co-authored Cancer: Diagnosis, Treatment and Prognosis. He later wrote Surgical Pathology in 1953 which set the standard for the practice of that specialty. He was credited with establishing surgical pathology as a separate medical specialty that involves the diagnosis of disease based on surgical biopsies. He died in 1993 at the age of 88 in New York.

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/30/obituaries/lauren-ackerman-88-professor-and-an-author-of-medical-texts.html

Willard M. Allen (1904-1993) was an academic obstetrician-gynecologist. He studied organic chemistry at Hobart College before he went the University of Rochester in 1926 to study medicine. In 1927, he took time out from medical studies to do research with his anatomy professor, George W. Corner. Together, they monitored changes in the corpus luteum of rabbits. The corpus luteum produces progesterone, a hormone important to the maintenance of pregnancy. This hormone was unknown until Allen and Corner's discovery of it in their experiments. For this research, Allen earned a master's in science in 1929. After returning to his medical studies in 1930, he earned his M.D. in 1932. Allen and microchemist Oskar Wintersteiner were the first of four groups to isolate progesterone in 1933. After an internship and residency at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, Allen joined the faculty of University of Rochester as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1936.

In 1940, Allen moved his gynecologic endocrine research operations to Washington University School of Medicine. At the time, he was the medical school's youngest department chair. He remained Department Chair and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology for over 30 years. An early collaborator in the department was William H. Masters, M.D, of the famous Masters and Johnson research team. At Washington University, Dr. Allen's major discoveries were of the "Blue Color Test" for DHIA (dehydroisoandrosterone) in diagnosis of adrenal tumors and the development of the "Allen Correction." The Allen Correction was a simple mathematical formula which made possible the analysis of steroids and other compounds by colorimetry. Allen was the first to administer progesterone to human subjects for treatment of uterine bleeding. Outside the laboratory, his most famous contribution was the description of the "Allen-Masters" syndrome, defined as a laceration of ligaments causing abnormal mobility of the cervix.

After his retirement from Washington University in 1971, Willard M. Allen became Professor of Obstetrics at the University of Maryland. Dr. Allen later served as Associate Dean of the medical school at the University of Maryland from 1976-1982.

James Barrett Brown was a St. Louis-based plastic surgeon who revolutionized the field with his pioneering use of large split-thickness skin grafts to resurface defects. Brown is also known for his 1954 publication on radical neck dissection, Neck Dissections, and for his work on organizing high-quality plastic surgery to injured soldiers in WWII.

Brown received both his undergraduate and medical education at Washington University in St. Louis, completed in 1923. He then studied surgical training at Barnes Hospital under Evarts Graham and Vilray Blair. Blair's work with head and neck cancer inspired Brown to work in the same practice, sparking a partnership that lasted from 1925 to Blair's death in 1955. Brown focused his research on skin grafts, which had been cut freehand prior to his demonstration in the 1930s that when cut thicker and larger, skin grafts still healed well at the donor site. This revolutionized the established principles of skin graft, which required great skill to carry out, leading to wide ramifications throughout the entire field of surgery especially thermal burn surgery. When mechanical and electric dermatomes were introduced, the cutting of skin grafts became more precise and required less skill and practice for the surgeon.

Brown's research culminated in the authorship of more than 300 articles and 60 book chapters on facial surgery, plastic surgery, oral surgery, skin grafting, thermal burn care, and neck dissection. In addition to his academic career, Brown's work in soldier care was significant. He helped organize facilities for reconstructive surgery for soldiers in England during WWII, and was instrumental in establishing plastic surgery centers in the United States for returning casualties. Brown directed one center at Valley Forge, PA, where over 2,500 patients were treated. Brown's leadership also spread to the medical community, having co-founded the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and served in leadership roles for the American College of Surgeons, the American Association of Plastic Surgeons and the Western Surgical Association.

Hugh M. Chaplin, Jr. was an emeritus professor of medicine and pathology best known for his work in hematology. Chaplin received his medical degree from Columbia University in 1947 and joined the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine in 1955. He remained at the medical school until 1991, during which time he served as an associate dean, director of the Student Health Service, and director of the Irene Walter Johnson Institute of Rehabilitation.

William S. Coxe received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University. He moved to St. Louis in 1957 and served on the faulty of Washington University School of Medicine until he retired as an emeritus professor in neurological surgery in 1997. Coxe received the School of Medicine's Distinguished Service Award in 2002.

William Cullen was a Scottish physician and professor of medicine, best known for his innovative teaching methods amd forceful inspiring lectures, which drew medical students to Edinburgh from throughout the English-speaking world. During the period of these lectures, he was at the University of Edinburgh. A more detailed biographical sketch may be found at "William Cullen." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 04 Sep. 2013. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/146062/William-Cullen

Charles O. Curtman was born Karl Otto Curtman in Giessen, Germany and was a medical graduate of the university in his native city, where he was a student of Justus von Liebig. After working in Antwerp, Belgium as an industrial chemist, he emigrated to the United States and settled in New Orleans in 1850. When the Civil War began he was commissioned as a medical officer in a Confederate cavalry unit, but soon thereafter was assigned to direct the manufacture of medicines and explosives at army laboratories. After the war he practiced medicine in Memphis and from there was recruited to join the faculty of Missouri Medical College in St. Louis. He was Professor of Chemistry at the College from 1868 until 1874 and again from 1883 until his death.

Curtman also taught at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy (the two colleges maintained an informal affiliation) and was on the staff of the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works in the city. Too early to be considered a "biochemist," he was nonetheless a significant local pioneer in investigating and teaching laboratory science to medical and pharmacy students. He was the author of three laboratory manuals and numerous journal reviews of current scientific developments. At the very end of his life, he was among the first in St. Louis to investigate applications for the newly discovered principles of x-ray technology.

Hallowell Davis was born in New York City on August 31, 1896. He studied at Harvard University, receiving a B.A. there in 1918 and an M.D. in 1922. Davis's interest in electrophysiology developed while doing post-graduate research in England under Lord Adrian. In 1923, Hallowell Davis joined the Department of Physiology at the Harvard Medical School. His research concentrated on the electrophysiology of nerves. He became associated with the informal group of scientists known as "axonologists," which also included Joseph Erlanger, Herbert Gasser, and others of WUSM. In the 1930s Davis began concentrating on problems relating to hearing, but was also active in research on electrical activity in the brain. He contributed to the development of one of the first ink-writing electroencephalographs. During World War II he did vital war-related research on human tolerance to loud sounds and on the development of hearing aids.

Hearing aid research brought Davis into frequent contact with Central Institute for the Deaf, which was a subcontractor to a Harvard project. In 1946 he accepted an offer to establish a Research Department at CID and also to join the WUSM Departments of Physiology and Otolaryngology.

Among his first major projects in St. Louis was measurement of effectiveness of fenestration operations pioneered by Theodore Walsh. Davis's use of speech in these hearing tests was the beginning of speech audiometry. He became a leading figure in the development of the first American standards for audiometers and the adoption of the international zero reference level as part of that standard. He continued research under several contracts with the U.S. Armed Forces, contributing to work in ultrasonics, mechanical shock, and other areas. In the 1960s he was a member of the National Research Council's Committee on SST (super-sonic transport) and Sonic Boom.

Hallowell Davis retired officially in 1965, but remained active as CID Director of Research Emeritus and Professor Emeritus of Otolaryngology. In 1976 he was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Gerald R. Ford. Davis died in 1992.

Dr. Edward Wheeler Dempsey was Dean of the Washington University School of Medicine from 1958-1964. Dr. Dempsey served during a turbulent time when the medical school administration was involved in a dispute with the strong-willed president of the Board of Trustees of Barnes Hospital, Edgar Monsanto Queeny. At the time, it was feared by some observers that a schism would result between the two institutions that would threaten the continued growth of the medical school.

Dr. Dempsey was a graduate of Marietta College (Marietta, Ohio) and received master of science and doctor of philosophy degrees in biology from Brown University. He was a member of the faculty of the Harvard Medical School from 1938 until coming to Washington University as Professor and Head of the Department of Anatomy in 1950. He continued as Head of Anatomy after being named Dean, and retained that appointment until 1966.

In 1964, Dr. Dempsey resigned from the deanship to serve in President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Upon his return from Washington in 1966, he was appointed to the Chair of Anatomy at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. He later served as a visiting professor at Stanford University. The many honors given to Dr. Dempsey and the offices he held in professional organizations are detailed in this collection.

George J. Engelmann (1847-1903) was a St. Louis native who worked as an obstetrician and gynecologist. He was the son of the famed botanist, George Engelmann, who had settled in St. Louis after emigrating from Germany. Engelmann graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1867 and continued his studies abroad in Europe in Berlin, Tubingen, Vienna, and Paris. During his time overseas, he volunteered as a surgeon in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871).

Engelmann returned to the United States in 1873 and subsequently became a professor of gynecology at the St. Louis Post-Graduate School of Medicine, where he chaired the study of operative midwifery and female diseases. He was a founding member of the American Gynecological Society. His contributions to medicine include articles such as The use of electricity in gynecological practice (1886), History of obstetrics (1888), and Fundamental principles of gynecological electro-therapy; application and dosage (1891). In his free time, Engelmann devoted his interests to archaeology, having worked on sites throughout southern Missouri and exchanged specimens with museums in Europe and the United States.

Palmer H. Futcher (1910-2004) was assistant professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine from 1946-1948. He earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1936 in the same class as Washington University faculty member Barry Wood. Wood hired him in the spring of 1946, and he had other appointments in medicine at Barnes Hospital and as chief of the diabetic & endocrine clinic at Washington University Clinics.

In 1948, Futcher moved to Johns Hopkins as associate professor of medicine and physician in charge of the private outpatient service of Johns Hopkins Hospital. He held a number of posts at Johns Hopkins including assistant dean. From 1967 to 1975 he was the executive secretary of the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Herbert S. Gasser (1888-1963) was a physiologist who received (jointly with Joseph Erlanger) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944. He served on the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine, 1916-1931. He earned a bachelor's degree (1910) and master's degree (1911) at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1915 and later served as a professor of physiology and director, 1935-1953 at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.

David A. Gee (1928-2006) was a prominent health administrator, serving both the former Jewish Hospital and the Washington University School of Medicine. He is best known for his 27-year tenure as president of the Jewish Hospital of Saint Louis. Gee's employment at the hospital began with an administrative residency in 1950. A year later, he attained a master's degree in health administration from Washington University School of Medicine. He graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, IN in 1949. Gee held various administrative positions at Jewish Hospital from 1951 until 1964, when he became executive director of the hospital. His presidency lasted from 1968 until 1995. Throughout his lengthy tenure at Jewish Hospital, Gee implemented a highly visible leadership approach that promoted open communication and a continued commitment to patient-centered care.

Gee also taught as a Professor of Health Administration at Washington University School of Medicine for 25 years. He penned 65 books and articles, including A History of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, published in 1981, and Working Wonders: A History of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, 1891-1992, published in 1993. Gee died on December 5, 2006. His legacy is honored with an administrative fellowship in his name at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which is awarded to qualified candidates interested in entering the field of health administration.

Sidney Goldring was a Polish-American neurosurgeon and educator who helped develop a brain surgery for patients with severe epilepsy. He developed the procedure throughout the 1960s and 1970s, using general anesthesia on his epileptic patients through electrodes placed on the brain to determine the precise areas that set off the seizures. Due to the success, this operation remains in use today.

He received his undergraduate (1943) and medical degrees (1947) from Washington University, where he stayed on as an assistant professor of neurological surgery in 1958. He briefly left the school to head the neurological surgery department at University of Pittsburgh from 1964 to 1966, but returned as a full professor. Goldring later served as the director for the university's McDonnell Center for Studies of Higher Brain Function from 1980 to 1988. He retired in 1990.

Also, he was a former president of the American Academy of Neurological Surgery, American Association of Neurological Surgeons and Society of Neurological Surgeons. Goldring served as chairman of the American Board of Neurological Surgery from 1974 to 1976.

Max A. Goldstein (1870-1941) was born in St. Louis and received his medical degree in 1892 from the Missouri Medical College, a precursor institution to Washington University School of Medicine. After an internship at St. Louis City Hospital, Dr. Goldstein traveled to Berlin, Strasbourg, London and Vienna as part of a grand tour to complete his medical training. His interest in otology, a new and promising field, led him to the internationally renowned Vienna Polyclinic to study with Dr. Adam Politzer (1835-1920), "father of modern otology." While in Vienna, Dr. Goldstein heard a series of lectures presented by Dr. Victor Urbantschitsch (1847-1921), a proponent of aural training for congenitally deaf children, and observed how deaf children could be taught speech by using acoustic training methods to stimulate dormant auditory senses.

Dr. Goldstein returned to St. Louis in 1895 to establish his medical practice. Within a year, Goldstein was appointed chair of Otology at Beaumont Medical College, an appointment that continued until 1912. In 1896 Goldstein founded a new medical journal, The Laryngoscope; he served as its editor from its first issue until his death in 1941. At the behest of Dr. Victor Urbantschitsch, Goldstein began teaching a class of sixteen girls at the St. Joseph's Institute for the Deaf using the Urbantschitsch acoustic training methods and provided instruction for teachers on how to apply these methods. These teaching sessions for deaf children and teachers of the deaf led to the idea of establishing an institute for the deaf in which an effective cooperation between teachers, otologists, and other specialties would develop. In 1914, Dr. Goldstein founded Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) in the rooms above his medical office. The first class consisted of four children and within two years construction began on a new separate school building.

By 1930, CID expanded to include a clinic for rehabilitation of deaf adults and research laboratories where scientists were recruited world-wide to study deafness. The teacher training program was affiliated with Washington University in 1931, the first deaf education program in the country affiliated with a university. Dr. Goldstein was made professor of research otology and speech pathology at Washington University that same year. He remained director of CID and professor until his death in 1941. By the time of Goldstein's death, CID had established an international reputation, with an enrollment of 300 students from the U.S. and several foreign countries.

Dr. Goldstein was also an avid collector of mechanical hearing devices including the first models of commercially made devices. The CID-Goldstein Historic Devices for Hearing Collection contains over 400 hearing devices dating from 1796 and represents one of the largest collections in the world. Associated with the collection is archival material dating from the 19th century including patents, photographic prints, catalog illustrations, advertisements, and related ephemera. In addition to collecting hearing devices, Dr. Goldstein collected rare books dealing with communication and disorders of the ear, nose and throat. The CID-Goldstein Collection in Speech and Hearing contains over 700 rare books on the fields of otology, deaf education and speech defects. Both collections are housed at Bernard Becker Medical Library.

Among his many achievements was the founding of The Society of Progressive Oral Advocates in 1918, an organization devoted to oral education of the deaf, and serving as editor of Oralism and Auralism, its official publication. He also founded the St. Louis League of Hard of Hearing, now known as the St. Louis Hearing-Speech Center. Dr. Goldstein was awarded the Gold Medal by the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society in recognition of his work in the education of the deafened child, the St. Louis Award for his great contributions to humanity, and an honorary LLD degree from Washington University. Dr. Goldstein passed away in July 1941 at the age of 71.

Dr. Samuel H. Gray (1897-1949) was a pathologist at Jewish Hospital who was the longtime director of its laboratory and research division until his death in 1949. Gray also taught at Washington University School of Medicine as associate professor of pathology. He graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University (1923) and was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy during WWII.

Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 18 August 1949; Bulletin of the St. Louis Jewish Hospital Medical Staff, October 1949, page 39-41

Samuel B. Guze was born in New York City in 1923. He completed his undergraduate coursework at the City College of New York, and later attended Washington University School of Medicine, receiving his medical degree in 1945. Dr. Guze began his career at Washington University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine in 1953. In 1955, he also became an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Guze is best remembered as one of the founding fathers of the scientific approach to psychiatry. In the 1950s he propagated the view that psychiatric illness should be diagnosed just as any other physical illness through the use of a scientific model and a biological approach.

Guze's work also spawned great interest in the genetics of psychiatric disorders. He was among the first psychiatrists to use the study of twins as a way to investigate the role of heredity in mental illness. He and his colleagues produced key findings about genetic vulnerability to alcoholism and to other conditions such as schizophrenia and affective disorders. His research brought widespread recognition of the important role epidemiologic studies should play in psychiatric research. His views found general acceptance in 1980, when he helped to compile the American Psychiatric Association's standard DSM-III, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

In addition to his scientific accomplishments, Guze is also recognized for the leadership abilities he demonstrated while holding several important administrative positions at Washington University. He served as the Assistant to the Dean from 1965 to 1971. He was appointed Vice Chancellor and President of the Washington University Medical Center in 1971, a position he held until 1989. Guze presided over the school during a time of rapid expansion and changes in medical care and research. Additionally, he was head of the Department of Psychiatry from 1975 to 1989, and again from 1993 to 1997. In all, he served on the faculty for almost 50 years. Guze passed away on July 19, 2000.