Where History and Medicine Intersect
In her final issue before retiring, the editor revisits VP&S legends and legendary moments
The editor and longtime coworker Carla Ransom review one of eight binders that hold magazine issues published since 1981. Photo by Jorg Meyer.
By Bonita Eaton Enochs
Sitting in an airport waiting area for a flight to take me to New York for a job interview in early 1991, I pulled out a Columbia University information brochure. I had picked up the brochure while visiting the Morningside campus on an earlier visit to New York City. Also during that campus visit, I spotted a job opening that seemed to be a perfect fit for me.
I can still vividly recall reading the parts of the brochure that described the medical school and its beginnings. Having grown up in a state that was only 124 years old, I could not fathom that a medical school—and its university—could be older than the nation itself. The more I read, the more I fell in love with the idea of working at a place so steeped in history.
I got the job, and 33 years later I am still editing this magazine and still in awe of the history of this school. But now I also have an appreciation for the many new and ongoing contributions of the faculty and alumni. Some aspects of my job have changed over the 33 years, but producing this magazine has been a constant. This is the 96th issue of the magazine that I’ve produced, counting the annual reports published under the Columbia Medicine nameplate.
If you have been a regular reader for even part of the past 33 years, you may have noticed that the magazine frequently revisits the school’s rich history. As I begin retirement, I am taking this opportunity in my last issue to remind readers—particularly younger readers— of the rich legacy of our faculty and our graduates. Much of the history of medicine has been written here over the school’s 257 years, and through storytelling we keep that history alive.
I’ve done my best to tell the story of VP&S past and present. In my first issue (Fall 1991) I worked with medical student Brent Wise’93 to tell the story of a documentary he and other students produced about health care and the homeless. Also in that issue, I worked with William Close’51 to publish a story about his 16 years in Africa. In my second issue (Spring 1992), I celebrated the 225-year anniversary of VP&S with a “Postcards from the Past” feature and a photo essay of pictures taken by Elizabeth “Libby” Wilcox, a sampling of the 150,000 photos she took to document the medical center over 35 years. She and her husband, Herbert “Bud” Wilcox, a 1934 graduate and longtime faculty member in the Department of Medicine, donated her photos and negatives to the medical center’s Archives & Special Collections, and several of the photos have been used in issues over the years.
After those first two issues, the magazine revisited history many times. Anniversaries—the Neurological Institute centennial, the medical center’s 75th anniversary, the medical school’s 250th, and, more recently, the anniversary of the identification of the gene that causes Huntington’s disease and the fertility center anniversary (Fall 2023), to name a few—provided a lens to celebrate the past and review current work that reinforces and enriches those legacies.
The 75th anniversary of what started as Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center (or, as the New York Times originally called it, “Columbia Presbyterian Medical Centre”) gave the magazine an opportunity to showcase the history of the medical center’s four schools, the hospital, and the New York State Psychiatric Institute (a state institution led by Columbia’s psychiatry chair). That issue also included stories about medical center architecture, spotlighted noted alumni, and highlighted 75 memorable moments, individuals, and contributions that have changed health care (Fall 2003). The medical school’s 250th anniversary in 2017 gave us the opportunity to feature more historical content, and trivia quizzes in two issues that year helped to pack a lot of history into a few pages.
The magazine’s storytelling has been helped over the years by alumni and faculty members who have written for the magazine or allowed us to print excerpts from their books: Roger MacKinnon’50, Andrew Frantz’55, Robert Lefkowitz’66, Mindy Aisen’80, Alan Lipkin’80, Barron Lerner’86, Stevan Weine’87, David Biro’90, Arthur Bank, Francine Cournos, Dickson Despommier, Michael Gershon, and David Rothman.
The biggest contributor to historical content, by far, was Nick Christy’51, who wrote 34 “Faculty Remembered” articles from 1994 through 2005. These articles about the giants of the medical school faculty were popular and generated many letters to the editor (the coin of the realm for an editor). Dr. Christy and I bonded over a shared love of editorial style, punctuation, and VP&S history. Dr. Christy’s “Faculty Remembered” research notes, correspondence, and drafts were donated to Archives & Special Collections.
Alumni and Faculty I Wish I Had Met (a select few)
Virginia Apgar, both a graduate and a longtime faculty member, would top my list. Colleagues of Dr. Apgar submitted memories of her for a cover story (Fall 1994) about a stamp issued in her honor. The memories shared were so vivid that I can almost picture her driving fast down the West Side and then turning that need for speed into flying lessons. I don’t know whether she was ever able to fly under the George Washington Bridge like she wanted but I can picture that too. Dr. Apgar’s legacy has many facets: the Apgar Score, a method used since the 1950s to assess newborn health; her role as a national spokesperson for the March of Dimes; Ladies Home Journal Woman of the Year in Science; her musical talents (and the story about her appropriation of a piece of wood from a medical center phone booth to make an instrument); her decision to enter anesthesiology after being discouraged from training in surgery; and her stamp collecting hobby. A faculty member for 21 years, she is remembered through the name of the medical school’s teaching academy, the Virginia Apgar Academy of Medical Educators. Others who appeared on U.S. postage stamps: Edward Trudeau, an 1871 graduate, and Charles Drew’40 MedScD.
Robert Loeb: He was one of the many undisputed luminaries of the faculty in the 1940s and 1950s, one of 14 instructional department chairs who were considered the acknowledged leaders in their fields at the time. Dr. Loeb was considered to be one of the most revered and influential internists in the United States and an authority on Addison’s disease. He was the single most popular topic among letter writers over my 33 years as editor. After we published an essay about Dr. Loeb by house staff alum Clifton Meador (Fall 2007), we received several letters, mostly positive. A few years later, we published an essay about “The Silver Fox” written by Lawrence Norton’58 (Winter/Spring 2010), and the letters were divided between appreciation for Dr. Loeb’s teaching style and criticism of how he treated students and house staff.
Landrum Shettles: He tried to make history by helping a couple conceive the first “test tube” baby in 1973 but was stopped by his department leadership. He would be impressed with how far IVF has come and the current success of Columbia’s fertility center. We finally told the story of his attempt in a recent issue (Fall 2023) but it was a short version of the stories I have heard over the years.
Charles Drew: After receiving his MD from McGill University in Montreal, Dr. Drew found most U.S. medical centers would not accept a Black resident. He joined the faculty at Howard University and became chief surgical resident at Freedmen’s Hospital. Dr. Drew trained at Howard for three years before getting a fellowship to Columbia. His training resulted in his doctor of medical science thesis on blood banking. Dr. Drew in 1940 was the first African American to be awarded a doctor of medical science degree by Columbia.
Samuel Lambert, Dean from 1904-1919: Samuel Bard’s 1769 commencement speech called for a partnership between Columbia’s medical school and a hospital. Dr. Lambert more than a century later tried to make that happen, seeing the need for adequate clinical instruction essential to the education of medical students. He set about to create a formal affiliation with a general hospital. The obvious choice was Roosevelt Hospital, which was across the street from P&S in midtown. Edward Harkness, a member of the Roosevelt board, supported the plan and offered to underwrite the costs of an affiliation. A story recounted in several histories blames the rejection of the plan on a personal disagreement between Dr. Lambert’s father and Dr. James W. McLane, president of the Roosevelt board. In most accounts of the story, the older Dr. Lambert and Dr. McLane were neighbors. When a branch from a tree in Dr. McLane’s yard threatened to break windows on Dr. Lambert’s property, Dr. McLane’s gardener suggested to Dr. Lambert that the branch be removed. Dr. Lambert concurred and Dr. McLane’s gardener—without notifying Dr. McLane— removed the branch, leading to a broken relationship between the two doctors that extended to Dr. Lambert’s son. The Roosevelt board was approached in 1908 and 1910 but turned down the affiliation proposal both times. Beyond the personal acrimony between Dr. Lambert and Dr. McLane, the rejection was blamed on the group’s resistance to opening hospital wards to medical students, a resistance common among hospitals of that era. Presbyterian Hospital accepted the affiliation offer Roosevelt’s board had turned down (and Edward Harkness, who resigned from the Roosevelt board, joined the Presbyterian board). Dr. Lambert is credited with creating the 1911 affiliation agreement between P&S and Presbyterian. The medical center broke ground in 1925 and opened in 1928 in its current location. Mr. Harkness donated the land on which the medical center was built and provided funds for construction.
Balbina Johnson: Ms. Johnson was a bacteriologist and director of the surgical bacteriological laboratory in 1943 when a culture from the wound of an injured girl was brought for examination. The girl, 7-year-old Margaret Tracy, arrived at the emergency room for treatment of a leg injury she suffered when she was hit by a car. The injury was infected with Bacillus subtilis. Ms. Johnson discovered that the Staphylococcus aureus seen in the initial microscopic examination had disappeared overnight. She worked with surgeon Frank L. Meleney, a 1916 graduate, and determined that the Staph aureus had been killed by a microbe. Discovery of the microbe led to the development of a powerful new antibiotic that was named bacitracin by combining parts of the words Bacillus and Tracy, the child’s surname. It remains a widely used topical antibacterial ointment on its own or in combination with other antibacterial agents.
Dorothy Andersen: Columbia’s strength in cystic fibrosis can be traced back to Dr. Andersen. At a time when only some 5% of practicing physicians in the United States were women, she held both an MD degree (from Johns Hopkins) and a Doctor of Medical Science degree (from Columbia). After she was rejected for a surgical residency elsewhere because she was a woman, Dr. Andersen accepted a position as a pathologist at Babies Hospital (now Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital), where she encountered her first case of cystic fibrosis in 1935. While performing an autopsy on a 3-year-old girl diagnosed with celiac disease, Dr. Andersen found the patient’s lungs in grisly condition and the pancreas riddled with fibrous cysts. Dr. Andersen took to the Columbia University library and in a broad study of research found records of similar oddities in celiac cases. She began her own research and in 1938 published an article for the American Journal of Diseases of Children, “Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas and Its Relation to Celiac Disease: A Clinical and Pathological Study,” in which she described nearly 50 cases of patients diagnosed with celiac disease who showed the hallmark signs of what is now known as cystic fibrosis. Dr. Andersen’s publication attracted concerned parents who traveled from across the country to seek her counsel, and her work shifted from pathologist to pediatrician as families poured in to see her. In the years that followed, she became the leading expert in cystic fibrosis (read more in the Fall/ Winter 2021 issue).
Allen O. Whipple: Dr. Whipple, a 1908 graduate, chaired the Department of Surgery from 1921 to 1946. His development of the Whipple procedure to treat pancreatic cancer is said to have begun by accident. In 1935 Dr. Whipple was giving an amphitheater demonstration to distinguished American and foreign visiting surgeons on a patient thought to have gastric carcinoma; halfway through, Dr. Whipple discovered that the lesion was actually carcinoma of the pancreas, so he had to devise and execute on the spot the elaborate operation still in use: pancreatoduodenectomy, involving stomach, jejunum, duodenum, pancreas, and common bile duct (now known as the Whipple procedure). This feat required imagination, manual dexterity of a high order, and great courage (Fall 1998 “Faculty Remembered” by Nicholas P. Christy’51).
William Stewart Halsted: Dr. Halsted, an 1877 graduate, was a fascinating figure in history for many reasons. He introduced several surgical techniques, notably radical mastectomy, which was cutting edge in 1882 when he perfected the technique. The procedure was the standard for 75 years. He also is credited with introducing the use of sterile gloves in the 1890s (because of the dermatitis his surgical nurse Caroline Hampton—later his wife—developed from the carbolic acid solution used to clean the instruments). His mother was his patient in 1882 when he performed the first known operation to remove gallstones. His addiction to cocaine—legal at the time—and morphine was his undoing in New York but he rebuilt his career in Baltimore, where he became one of the founding physicians of Johns Hopkins. The lead character in the 2014-2015 Cinemax miniseries, “The Knick,” is based on his surgical prowess amid his addictions.
Benjamin Spock’29: Known by at least one generation as “Dr. Spock,” he became a household name for his parenting books that combined sound pediatrics, Freud, and common sense. I worked with the author of a Spock biography to organize a 1998 panel discussion about Dr. Spock’s influence and hoped to meet Dr. Spock but he died a few months before the event. I am a member of the Baby Boom generation but as the fourth child in a working class family in Nebraska I doubt my parents made much use of Dr. Spock’s advice.
Robert Coles’54: After completing training in child psychiatry in Boston, Dr. Coles moved to New Orleans. There he heard about Ruby Bridges, 6, as she was escorted into school during desegregation of public schools. Dr. Coles volunteered to support Ruby and her family and wrote articles about them for the Atlantic Monthly. The articles led to a series of books about how families deal with profound change. The series won Dr. Coles a Pulitzer Prize in 1973. He also wrote a popular children’s book, “The Story of Ruby Bridges.” Dr. Coles also received a MacArthur Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the National Humanities Medal.
Alumni, Faculty, and Others I Worked With
I had the opportunity to work with many VP&S faculty and alumni. Ken Forde’59 served on the editorial board, Tom Morris’58 was chair of the editorial board for 21 years, and I worked closely with Anke Nolting in her alumni leadership role. Donald Tapley, dean from 1973 to 1984, was listed as editor of the magazine when I started in this job in 1991, and I soon realized that meant I did the work and he was available as an adviser. After a few years, he moved to the formal role of chair of the editorial board, and my role was officially listed on the masthead as Editor.
Libby Wilcox, the unofficial medical center photographer for more than three decades, became a good friend. She is the only woman I’ve ever known to carry and use a flask.
The magazine published cover stories on three Nobel Prize winners over the course of my 33-year tenure: Eric Kandel (he earned the Nobel Prize in 2000 and the Winter 2001 issue had the cover story), Richard Axel (2004 Nobel Prize, cover story Winter 2005), and Joachim Frank (2017 Nobel Prize, cover story Spring/Summer 2018).
VP&S alumnus Robert Lefkowitz’66 received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2012 for elucidating G-protein-coupled receptors. I worked with Dr. Lefkowitz on the story announcing his win (Spring/Summer 2013) and years later worked with him to publish an excerpt from his 2021 book, “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Stockholm: The Adrenaline-Fueled Adventures of an Accidental Scientist” (Spring/Summer 2021). Dr. Lefkowitz is one of two members of the Class of 1966 to receive Nobel Prizes. Harold Varmus received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for studies of the genetic basis of cancer.
This is not an exhaustive list of amazing Columbia medical school graduates or faculty members. Others include Oswald Theodore Avery, a 1904 graduate whose work on the biology of pneumococcus led to discoveries that generated advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. He has been described as the most deserving scientist to not receive a Nobel Prize for creating the “historical platform of modern DNA research.” The Oswald T. Avery Collection is part of Nobel Prize winner Joshua Lederberg’s papers at the National Library of Medicine. Dr. Lederberg, who began medical school at Columbia but eventually earned a PhD at Yale, assembled the collection because of the strong connection between his work and that of Dr. Avery. Dr. Avery figures prominently in “The Great Influenza,” John M. Barry’s book about the flu pandemic that began in 1918.
So many more alumni and faculty could be listed: the many women who made a difference in medicine or the 22 faculty members or graduates who received Nobel Prizes, individuals who have served as NIH director or NIH center directors, Olympic medalists, elected officials, Pulitzer Prize winners, Emmy award winners, and recipients of MacArthur “genius grants.” Or, Allen Steere’69 and Stephen Malawista’58, who are credited with defining and naming Lyme disease; George Huntington, an 1871 graduate who identified Huntington disease, and Columbia faculty member Nancy Wexler, who more than a century later led the international team that identified the gene that causes Huntington’s; E. Donnall Thomas, a faculty member based at Bassett Hospital in the late 1950s and early 1960s who pioneered bone marrow transplantation and earned a Nobel Prize; astronaut Story Musgrave’64 and other NASA researchers; doctors to U.S. presidents; Vincent Freda and John Gorman, who developed RhoGAM to prevent Rh disease (Spring/ Summer 2024); and Laszlo Bito, whose research led to the development of a blockbuster drug, Xalatan, to treat glaucoma. VP&S graduates have served as presidents of universities, deans of medical and public health schools, and chairs of medical school departments. Many of our alumni and faculty have written best sellers and Pulitzer Prize-winning books.
VP&S in the Outside World
The renown of Columbia’s medical school has prevailed for years and extends beyond the New York City area. Look no farther than books and TV shows for references to health care advances attributed to Columbia faculty and alumni. As a fan of TV medical dramas, I often hear references to advances already mentioned (Apgar Score and the Whipple procedure) and those I have not mentioned (tPa to treat certain kinds of stroke and Crohn’s disease, named for Burrill Crohn, a 1907 graduate). I especially enjoyed watching the Fox drama, “The Resident,” because Daniela Lamas’08 was a writer for the series; we wrote about her in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue.
One book that reinforces Columbia’s contributions to medical history is “The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer,” a Pulitzer Prize winner for faculty member Siddhartha Mukherjee. The book acknowledges the work in cancer by alumni (Larry Norton’72, Karen Antman’74, William Peters’78, Baruch Blumberg’51, William Halsted’1877, Harold Varmus’66, George Canellos’60, Michael Wigler’78 PhD) and faculty (Jacob Furth, E. Donnall Thomas, James Wolff, Cushman Haagensen, Thomas Hunt Morgan, Hermann Muller, Sol Spiegelman, Barron Lerner, Joshua Lederberg, Ed Gelmann, Corinne Abate-Shen, Michael Shen, and Riccardo Dalla-Favera).
Looking Ahead
Columbia Medicine magazine’s storytelling is intended to keep readers informed of great things happening at the medical school and remind readers of the rich legacy of the men and women who helped write medical history. If the work going on now at VP&S is any indication, medicine will continue to be shaped by work done by our faculty and alumni. Current work includes AI preparations and gene therapy research described in other parts of this issue, the clinical advances we feature in each issue, research to improve and expand immunotherapy, development of lighting technology to clear indoor air of pathogenic viruses and prevent transmission of infectious diseases, gun violence research, patient safety initiatives, amazing heart surgery procedures, an array of non-invasive treatments, exciting ways to prevent Alzheimer’s, and so much more.
The magazine has changed in my 33 years at the helm: The inside of the magazine has gone from black plus one color to full color. Issues have increased in frequency. The name changed to reflect a stronger connection to Columbia. We now augment the print magazine with an online edition and other digital communications (emails and e-newsletters) and that has expanded our storytelling reach. I expect the magazine will continue to change to respond to the needs of future generations of readers.
Being editor of this magazine for 33 years has been a wonderful privilege, and I hope I have put to good use the opportunity to share with recipients—the magazine is mailed to individuals in every state, two U.S. territories, and more than 40 countries—stories of the greatest medical school in the greatest city, past, present, and future.
The writer thanks Tom Morris, Steve Novak, and Lauren Perlmutter for reviewing and offering input on her draft of this article.
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My Gallery of Deans
During my 33 years as editor, I worked in the administrations of four deans and three interim deans.
Herb Pardes, left, was dean when I arrived at Columbia in 1991; he served as dean from 1989-1999. Donald Tapley, right, had been dean from 1973 to 1984 and was the magazine’s contact in the dean’s office until his death in 1999. This photo was taken in 1996.
Tom Morris was interim dean for clinical and educational affairs from 2000-2001 and chair of the magazine’s editorial board for 21 years. This photo was taken in 2019.
I do not have a photo of me with Gerald Fischbach (dean, 2001-2006) but I was present when we took this photo for the magazine’s Fall 2001 cover story on his appointment as dean. The magazine did cover stories on each new dean appointed after my tenure began.
This photo with Lee Goldman (dean, 2006-2021) was taken in 2016, the year I was inducted into Columbia’s 25-Year Club.
What a treat to have been at Columbia when a woman was appointed dean. This photo with Katrina Armstrong, who became dean in 2022, was taken this year.