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NEWSLETTERAlumni News of the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Department of Surgery Volume 10 Number 2 Fall 2007 Tenth Anniversary Issue Table of Contents John Jones Surgical Society 177 Fort Washington Avenue, MHB 7SK New York, NY 10032 JJSS at age 10 ..................................................................................................2 Telephone: 212-305-2735 Fax: 212-305-3236 Albert Starr’s Lasker Award .......................................................................3 webpage: www.columbiasurgery.org/alumni/index.html Big (Brick and mortar) Names on Campus ............................................6 Editor: James G. Chandler Where Are They Now? ..............................................................................14 Administrator: Trisha J. Hargaden Design: Columbia University Center for Biomedical Communication JJSS at the ACS Clinical Congress ..........................................................16 The John Jones Surgical Society at Age 10 James G. Chandler The John Jones Surgical Society (JJSS) is alive and well at age Since the AOWSS was a surgical educational society rather 10, holding an annual scientific meeting and dinner on its own in than a Presbyterian Hospital surgical alumni society, most PH grad- the spring and meeting again in the fall at the American College of uates did not notice its demise. Blair Rogers,2 a plastic surgeon who Surgery (ACS). The Society serves as a repository for the icons and had most of his training at Columbia, finishing in 1956, resurrected legends of the Columbia/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and its an- John Jones’ role in Kings College and the Revolutionary War with an tecedents, in cooperation with the Archives and Special Collections elegant 1972 paper in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Jones’ re- Section of the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library, and func- habilitation lay fallow for quite some time, but the Solomonic choice tions, not quite as well as it should, as a contact resource for current of naming a society for a surgical leader from two centuries before trainees. Most importantly, it serves to remind all of us of the privi- rather than the current chairman, or an immediate predecessor lege we have in being associated with one of the foremost medical must have lingered in several minds. institutions in the Country, if not the World. In return, the Society, Eric Rose and Ken Forde aired the concept of forming a Pres- which has enjoyed the Department’s largess since its inception, has byterian Hospital Surgical Alumni Society at the 1996 ACS Depart- a good start on funding a perpetual John Jones Surgical Research ment of Surgery reception, which was enthusiastically endorsed. Fellowship that offers broad opportunities to especially promising Soon after the meeting, aware of Rogers’ article and others, Eric Rose trainees. The Fellowship enhances the Society’s worth in the eyes of suggested that Jones be the Society’s Icon. Ken Forde responded with both new acolytes and those on the other side of the slope in need of his characteristic, mellow “Why not?” and set about forming a Steer- assurance that their cherished legacy will long endure. ing Committee, comprising Fred Herter, Fred Jaretzki, Carl Feind, The Sunday/Monday issue of every ACS “Clinical Congress Al Markowitz, John Schullinger, Paul Starker, Ken Steinglass, and News” devotes two pages of what look like classified ads, to listing Phil Wiedel. They held their first meeting in February 1997 to do Associated Society meetings. Some are strictly working sessions for organizational things like formulating a Constitution and By-laws, Editorial Boards, Program Committees, or Training Directors. Oth- deciding what the stationery should look like, sending a letter out to ers are elitist groups typified by Surgical Biology Clubs I to IV, and an the alumni, and waking up to the fact that younger surgeons must be increasing number represent the national and ethnic diversity of the included in the decision making body. College. But, the principal component, by far, relates to affiliations The Society has been an inclusive organization from its incep- with Universities or teaching hospitals, and these are decreasing tion. All sugeons who were partially or fully trained at Columbia’s in number. Temporal dissociation between the eponymous honor- NewYork-Presbyterian (née Presbyterian) Hospital, as well as all ees and living members has transitioned Naffziger, Altemeier, and current and past surgical faculty, automatically become mem- Glenn Societies into institutional brands. They, in turn, are tending bers. Current residents and clinical fellows are accorded candidate to amalgamate into regional groups, like the five campuses of the membership, and former research fellows and first-year residents, University of California, and the three Ohio Medical Schools for ob- whose principal surgical training occurred elsewhere, are eligible vious cost savings and for less obvious dwindling attendance. to be considered for active membership on an individual basis. Closer to home, Columbia Presbyterian faculty, who trained John Jones was immediately emblematic of the Society’s in- with Dr. Whipple, formed an Allen O. Whipple Surgical Society terest in history, as evidenced by its arranging for the restoration of (AOWSS) in 1952, with furthering surgical education as its avowed the Archives and Special Collections’ copy of Jones’ “Plain, Concise, purpose. Academic orientation and achievement quickly overrode Practical Remarks On The Treatment Of Wounds And Fractures,” having trained at Columbia Presbyterian and much of the member- reflecting his Revolutionary War experience, which had been con- ship eventually came from other institutions, including teaching tributed by Hugh Auchincloss, Sr. in 1942. The Steering Committee hospitals that, at the time, did not have direct university affiliations, also gathered and buffed up the Department’s memorabilia for dis- such as Hartford Hospital, the Mayo Clinic, and Baystate Medical play in the Surgical Residents’ library and adjoining hallway on the Center.1 Their needs were particularly well met by the AOWSS meet- seventh floor of the Milstein Building. They capped these activities ing jointly with the Society of Surgical Chairman for two decades. by committing themselves to writing a Departmental history that Towards the end of its halcyon days, the journal Surgery regularly would span King’s College days through 2002. devoted a portion of its 1970-73 October issues to papers presented The Society held its first meeting on May 8, 1997, in conjunc- at the Society’s annual spring meetings. Its subsequent meetings oc- tion with P&S alumni weekend, featuring Garrett M. Brodeur, Chief curred in conjunction with the ACS, and without non-member, sur- of Oncology at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who spoke gical chairmen, resulting in the AOWSS holding its last meeting in about the fascinating genetic underpinnings of neuroblastomas, New Orleans, in October 1978, 15 years after Dr. Whipple’s death. as the John N. Schullinger Special Lecturer in Childhood Cancer. Paul Friedman at Bay State, Dom DeLaurentis at Pennsylvania Hos- Its next meeting was in October, at the ACS, where Ken Forde was pital, and Rollo Hanlon, ACS Director, all former AOWSS members, elected its first President, followed by Ken Steinglass, as Vice Presi- recreated its role after protracted deliberations as the Association of dent, Beth Ditkoff as Secretary, and Al Markowitz as Treasurer. In Program Directors in Surgery, which held its first meeting in 1984. November of its founding year Fred Herter presented a first draft of One might say a nice ending, but never the less - an ending. the Departmental history to the Steering committee. 1 Cofer JB. Presidential Address. Curr Surg 2006;63:361-6. 2 Rogers BO. Surgery in the revolutionary war – Contributions of John Jones, MD. Plast and Reconstr Surgery 1972;49:1-13. 2 John Jones Surgical Society Volume 10, Number 2 Fall 2007 Regular annual meetings at the ACS and on and off spring Hospital in the City of New York’s Alumni Directory, last published meetings on P&S Alumni weekends characterized the succeeding in 1963, sits right beside “A Proud Heritage.” Our Society would have six years with two hallmarks of substantive progress. The first John more “glue” if we had such a directory. The By-laws call for it, and it Jones Surgical Society News Letter, with Beth Ditkoff as its Editor, has been in the works for far too long. was mailed to 800 members in September 1998. David Kinne took The John Jones Research Fellowship has received great support, over its editorship in 2001, setting a dauntingly high standard for but from a minority of the membership. The percent of members who anyone who would follow. Hard work, talented writing, and tenacity have contributed is embarrassingly small, even among those who have yielded “A Proud Heritage: An Informal History of Surgery At Co- a vested interest in surgical education. Small enough, in fact, to war- lumbia,” published in 2003, with Drs. Herter and Jaretzki as Editors, rant keeping it secret from the contributors, and John Jones himself, Forde as Associate Editor, and Markowitz, Steinglass, and Wiedel as lest they become, respectively, discouraged and saddened – please ac- contributors. cept this as an unabashed and impassioned plea for broader participa- The Society’s fourth annual spring meeting in May 2004 tion. marked another milestone, as it was a stand-alone affair,

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