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IN MEMORIAM FRANCIS E. WEST, a native of Los Angeles, attended Loyala College there and completed his final year at Stanford. His first 2 years of medical school were at the University of Southern California, the final two at the University of California, San Francisco, where he was Alpha Omega Alpha and took his medical degree in 1933. His internship was at the University of California Hospital, where he also completed his orthopedic residency under the late Leroy C. Abbott. He spent 1 year as an exchange resident at the University of Michigan. He was board cer- tified and did clinical teaching in addition to having a private practice. In 1941, Frank decided to enter private practice in San Diego, where he established a medical group which continues as one of the most active and respected in the city. He reported for duty in the Army in 1943. He served as chief of orthopedic surgery at Gardner General Hospital, then at Percy James General at Battle Creek, Michigan. With the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he returned in 1946 to San Diego. His practice was most successful, he raised a wonderful family, became active in community affairs, and was in- strumental in enlarging Mercy Hospital’s facilities and teaching. He was active in raising funds and had a fine ability of attracting lay community persons to give of their talents. In 1952, Frank served as president of the San Diego County Medical Society. He served on many committees of the California Medical Association. In 1963, he was elected president of that organization. He served as a member of the Board of Medical Examiners, a represen- tative of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association. As a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery, he was persuaded to become its president (1967 to 1968). He was under consideration for a high office in the American Medical Association when his health failed. In February 1969, Frank underwent successful re- placement of the aortic valve, only to suffer 14 hours postoperatively from a stroke which involved his entire right side and caused speech difficulties. After long reha- bilitation therapy he was able to become a clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California, San Diego, where he became very involved with the rehabili- tation program. In 1975, with enthusiastic sponsorship of the San Diego Medical Society, he was awarded the Ben- jamin Rush Bicentennial Award for Citizenship and Community Service, and named Physician of the Year. Two years before his death, Frank suffered a fracture of his right hip, which was successfully pinned. He was able to resume his teaching duties. He then had pain in the hip area and was confined to a wheelchair. The pain continued as he struggled against declining health. He died at Mercy Hospital on August 24,1982. Frank is survived by his wife, Marion, two daughters, a son, who is an MD, and five grandchildren. Frank was universally loved and respected by all. Through his willingness to accept responsibility, his lead- ership and his kindness, he has left a deep mark of excel- lence on his patients, friends, colleagues, and commu- nity. John Steelquist, MD LOREN ROSCOE CHANDLER died peacefully near his beloved Stanford Medical School on October 16, 1982, more than half a century after his appointment as dean there. He left behind a history and legacy unparalleled in the School’s history. 152 The Amerkan Joumal ol Surgery

Loren Roscoe Chandler

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Page 1: Loren Roscoe Chandler

IN MEMORIAM

FRANCIS E. WEST, a native of Los Angeles, attended Loyala College there and completed his final year at Stanford. His first 2 years of medical school were at the University of Southern California, the final two at the University of California, San Francisco, where he was Alpha Omega Alpha and took his medical degree in 1933. His internship was at the University of California Hospital, where he also completed his orthopedic residency under the late Leroy C. Abbott. He spent 1 year as an exchange resident at the University of Michigan. He was board cer- tified and did clinical teaching in addition to having a private practice. In 1941, Frank decided to enter private practice in San Diego, where he established a medical group which continues as one of the most active and respected in the city.

He reported for duty in the Army in 1943. He served as chief of orthopedic surgery at Gardner General Hospital, then at Percy James General at Battle Creek, Michigan. With the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, he returned in 1946 to San Diego.

His practice was most successful, he raised a wonderful family, became active in community affairs, and was in- strumental in enlarging Mercy Hospital’s facilities and teaching. He was active in raising funds and had a fine ability of attracting lay community persons to give of their talents. In 1952, Frank served as president of the San Diego County Medical Society. He served on many committees of the California Medical Association. In 1963, he was elected president of that organization. He served as a member of the Board of Medical Examiners, a represen- tative of the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association. As a member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery, he was persuaded to become its

president (1967 to 1968). He was under consideration for a high office in the American Medical Association when his health failed.

In February 1969, Frank underwent successful re- placement of the aortic valve, only to suffer 14 hours postoperatively from a stroke which involved his entire right side and caused speech difficulties. After long reha- bilitation therapy he was able to become a clinical professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California, San Diego, where he became very involved with the rehabili- tation program. In 1975, with enthusiastic sponsorship of the San Diego Medical Society, he was awarded the Ben- jamin Rush Bicentennial Award for Citizenship and Community Service, and named Physician of the Year.

Two years before his death, Frank suffered a fracture of his right hip, which was successfully pinned. He was able to resume his teaching duties. He then had pain in the hip area and was confined to a wheelchair. The pain continued as he struggled against declining health. He died at Mercy Hospital on August 24,1982. Frank is survived by his wife, Marion, two daughters, a son, who is an MD, and five grandchildren.

Frank was universally loved and respected by all. Through his willingness to accept responsibility, his lead- ership and his kindness, he has left a deep mark of excel- lence on his patients, friends, colleagues, and commu- nity.

John Steelquist, MD

LOREN ROSCOE CHANDLER died peacefully near his beloved Stanford Medical School on October 16, 1982, more than half a century after his appointment as dean there. He left behind a history and legacy unparalleled in the School’s history.

152 The Amerkan Joumal ol Surgery

Page 2: Loren Roscoe Chandler

In Memoriam

He was born in Fresno, California in 1895. His parents were hard-working farmers, tilling the Fresno soil for cot- ton and grapes. Early on he was imbued with the puritan ethics of hard work, love of family, productivity through personal and team effort, assumption of responsibility, unfailing honesty in all personal and monetary relation- ships, and creativity and accomplishment through the proper balance of man with his fellow man and environ- ment. He learned to love people of every type and diversity, to work with them, and to find contentment in work and accomplishment. Roscoe, as his family called him, absorbed these qualities without hesitation. In high school, he showed signs of leadership as well as a strong academic record. He was at that stage tall, lean, and muscular, and in high school went out for football. The coach saw him standing alone his first day on the football field and said, “Who is that tall Yankee over there?” Within a week he became known as Yank Chandler, an attractive name that graced his personality well and stayed with him for life among all his friends.

The combination of scholastic attainment, talent for leadership, and a warm, friendly, and sparkling personality brimming with the puritan ethic won him admission to Stanford University in 1916. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1920. His brothers stayed home on the family farm and Yank went on to Stanford Medical School, obtaining his medical degree in 1923, for in those days the first year of medical school could be the senior year of un- dergraduate work. In his last year of medical school, which at that time was in San Francisco, he met Elva Beal, a beautiful student nurse. In those days, a student nurse was prohibited from getting married, and both of them had to wait for their respective graduations, she from nursing school and he from medical school, to exchange their marital vows. Elva understood and admired Yank’s capa- bilities and potentials from the start and devoted her life to him, his aims, and his aspirations. One of her favorite stories relates to Yank’s first meeting as a member of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association in 1933. They were standing in the reception line for new members, and a couple of the distinguished senior members greeted Yank, turned to Elva and said, “Mrs. Chandler, tell us something about yourself. We all know Yank is the youngest dean of Stanford Medical School, one of the youngest surgeons to ever get into the Pacific Coast Surgical Association, one of the best pediatric surgeons in San Francisco, but what about you?” To which Elva replied, “I took a medical student and made a dean out of him in 10 years!!!” And, I might add, Elva played the role of Yank’s wife with grace, charm, loyalty, and devotion throughout their entire marital life, regardless of many changing vicissitudes.

Yank interned in surgery at Stanford-Lane Hospital in 1923, and became chief resident in surgery there in 1925. Full-time professors had not appeared as yet at Stanford. Emmet Rixford, Sr., Jack Cowan, and Philip K. Gilman were the revered professors of surgery, all with large private practices. Yank went into the office of Jack Cowan and soon developed one of the largest private surgical practices in San Francisco, not only because Jack Cowan died within a few years, but also because he had an integrity, dedica- tion, and devotion to excellence in patient care which en- deared patients from all walks of life to his simple hu- manism, his sympathetic understanding of every problem, emotional as well as physical, and his honesty and wisdom

in delivering his bountiful skills and judgments. He was never a mere surgical artist purchased to attend but always a kind, considerate, and self-forgetting friend to anyone seeking his services. I had the good fortune to take a class from him while still in medical school on how to build a medical practice, and I will never forget his opening ad- monitions: “Take good care of grandma’s ingrown toenail, and you will get Johnny’s tonsils when they have to come out” or “Give everybody the same brand of vanilla, whether he be the president of a corporation or a poor misfortunate from skid row.” With this attitude and philosophy of practice, together with his willingness to work and be available, it is no small wonder that his practice blossomed beyond control, and he soon began to specialize in pediatric surgery, a field in which he made many clinical contribu- tions, especially in the area of surgery for congenital pyloric stenosis and congenital imperforate anus. After he became dean he limited his practice largely to pediatric surgery but continued to care for any surgical problems his old friends had. He could not escape them, so attached and devoted were they to him.

Full-time professors came to Stanford University School of Medicine just as Yank started his practice and teaching career with the arrival of Dr. Arthur Bloomfield in medi- cine in 1925 and Dr. Emile Holman in surgery in 1927. Yank admired the new excellence in teaching and patient care that they brought to Stanford and worked with them through the depression years as a full-time faculty member. His talents caught the eye of Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur who became president of Stanford University and who inter- ested Yank in the concept of voluntary prepaid insurance to meet the rising costs of medical care during and after the Great Depression. Through Dr. Wilbur he met Herbert Hoover, was fascinated by his concept of the importance of the individual and the uncommon man, and became interested in the social problems of medicine. Yank served as a respected bridge between the practicing downtown physicians, with their ills during the depression, and the full-time faculty of Stanford Medical School, who required the support of the loyal downtown physicians in teaching and patient care to enable them to accomplish their pri- mary missions in teaching and research. Yank assumed the role of a young gradualist, working for reforms within the existing system rather than pulling it to pieces and starting afresh. He became convinced that lasting improvements in the Stanford Medical School could only be achieved by raising the educational contributions of clinical faculty to the school with dedication of all to the financial integrity of school, whether the depression existed or not. Small wonder, then, that he was selected to be dean of the Stan- ford University School of Medicine in 1933, when Dr. Ophuls retired, for he had the support of President Wilbur, former President Hoover, the full-time faculty, and the clinical faculty.

World War II broke out in 1942 and with it came the accelerated teaching programs and federal support for essential military and educational purposes. This subtle intrusion of government money into Stanford medical education was accepted out of national loyalty, and Yank saw to it that no Stanford medical student went off to help our country without being prepared in the care of the in- jured. Most university presidents and medical school deans began accepting with concern, then with pride and honor, the large sums of government money which were offered

Volume 146, July 1963 153

Page 3: Loren Roscoe Chandler

In Memoriam

to support these national goals-but not Yank. He re- mained true to his impecunious principles and held the growth and development of the medical school to a limited and balanced budget. Right or wrong, this failure to un- derstand in the postwar years how a private medical school could have its academic life and physical plant enriched by a proper relationship to changing governmental needs in medicine, technology, health, and basic science would ultimately lead to his downfall as dean.

1950 was a wonderful year for Yank. The senior faculty of the school was slowly retiring. Yank set out to pick his “1960 Rose Bowl team” of promising, new, young depart- ment heads, and Yank’s dream was to lead this “team” to victory in San Francisco before retiring. Chandler knew what else he wanted “Just a modest new physical plant to house the experts-the triple threat masters who could teach, practice, and do research, and make things so simple the student would wonder why he didn’t think of it himself. The noblest virtue of a physician is to take good care of sick people, and that’s what teaching is all about. Good teachers will produce others, who at the same age will be better than they were. And medicine will always progress and remain in good hands.” Yank disliked grants, government support with its attendant bureaucracy, the relegation of teaching to junior faculty, and trumped-up research by fuddy- duddies who liked money but not practice. Chandler re- signed as dean, relinquished his dreams for a new school in San Francisco with the “1960 Rose Bowl team,” and decided to “take a little well-earned green pasture” by going with the Medical School to Stanford and reverting to being a full-time professor of surgery. The newspapers reported: “Yank Chandler has been a notable dean and his administration has lent distinction to Stanford’s place in medicine.”

Chandler earned many honors for his leadership in medical education and teaching. He was president of the Association of American Medical Colleges from 1941 to 1942, president of the California Academy of Medicine in 1942, president of the San Francisco Surgical Society in 1948, president of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association from 1954 to 1955; he was a member of the American Col- lege of Surgeons and American Surgical Association; he worked for the California Medical Association, and was one of three men appointed to a commission of the American Medical Association to study the effects of the British National Health Science Act on health care and education in Britain. He concluded that it would be “folly” to insti- tute such a plan in the United States. Nevertheless, he favored voluntary prepaid medical care and was instru- mental in developing the California Physicians Service and Blue Cross.

Yank took a sabbatical in 1955, worked for the Mellon Foundation, organized the staff at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschappelles, Haiti, and served as chief sur- geon there. In 1959, he was made honorary fellow of Stan- ford University, the highest and rarely bestowed honor of the University to its uncommon men. From 1959 to re- tirement, he served as chief of surgery in the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital, and planned and aided its proper relationship to Stanford Medical School. He retired in 1968 and was one of the few physicians happy in retirement. He loved to attend the Medical School func- tions, water his small garden, serve cocktails to the ladies at bridge or tea, and enjoy an active social life with Elva and his remaining friends at cocktail parties and dinners. He

was loved and respected wherever he appeared for his warmth, grace, and friendship.

Yank is survived by his beloved wife, Elva; a son, Craig, who is in the Forestry Service; a daughter, Loran, who is married to an orthopedist; and by several grandchildren. We will always remember and miss him, for he truly made the world and medicine a better place for all of us.

Victor Richards, MD

EDWIN JACK WYLIE died on September 2,1982. Upon his death, the Pacific Coast Surgical Association and the world of vascular surgery lost a respected friend and pi- oneering leader.

Jack Wylie was born in Ohio but spent most of his life on the Pacific Coast. He was raised in Southern California and graduated from Pomona College there. He received his doctor of medicine degree from Harvard in 1943, and completed his surgical internship at New York Hospital. He then returned to California, this time to the San Francisco Bay Area where he maintained a residence throughout his life. He completed a rigorous surgical training program at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center under the direction of H. Glenn Bell, MD. He was stimulated by the early reports of direct arterial surgery for atherosclerosis and was the fiit to use the technique of endarterectomy to successfully treat aortoiliac occlusive disease in the United States in 1951. He continued with laboratory and clinical studies of vas- cular disease, and from that background, published many important papers which emphasized surgical management of challenging clinical vascular problems.

Jack was elected a member of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association in 1953 in recognition of his early work in vascular disease. During the next three decades, he pre- sented a number of his papers at the meetings of the Pacific Coast Surgical Association.

154 The Amorkan Joumal ol Surgwy