Acceptance of The Gold Headed Cane Award Dr. Harold L. Stewart
On the day in mid February that Barry Pierce telephoned me the surprising and unexpected news that the council and officers of the Association had voted me this prestigious honor, the award of the Gold Headed Cane, the price of gold topped $180 an ounce on the London exchange. It was in the year 1919, when the price of gold was a fraction of this, that the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists awarded the first Gold Headed Cane. I couldn't help but calculate the amount of money the Association would have saved had it, at that time, purchased a sufficient quantity of gold to cover the head of the canes it was to award later. It was in the 1930s that I joined the American Society for Experimental Pathology and the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, the parent organizations of the AAP. The first meeting that I attended was the AAPB meeting in 1932 in Philadelphia. On the program was a paper given by my cousin, Dr. Benjamin Clawson, describing the structure of the subcutaneous nodules in chronic arthritis; Dr. Eugene Opie and Dr. Esmond Long gave a paper on cellular reactions in relation to sensitization and immunity in tuberculosis; and Dr. Henry Pinkerton gave one of his early reports on typhus and spotted fever rickettsia in tissue culture. The latter three, Drs. Opie, Long, and Pinkerton, subsequently became recipients of the Gold Headed Cane Award. The succeeding programs of both parent pathology organizations were of a similarly high quality. I have derived great benefit from my membership in both organizations and through them have acquired many close friends. My wish is for the continued success of the new Association. Esmond Long states in his entertaining history of the Gold Headed Cane that an obligation, in general terms, laid on each awardee was to prepare a manuscript containing notes on his experiences in medicine. The obligation has never been fulfilled. The reason, he opines, is that most recipients have been somewhat embarrassed at according themselves such a privilege. In my own case, my failure to conform to the obligation cannot be attributed to modesty. For from the disability of modesty, I do not suffer. Of many of those who wear the toga of modesty, my assessment corresponds to that of the late Sir Winston Churchill: speaking of one of his political opponents, Churchill declared, " He is a very modest man and he has much to be modest about." 6
Vol.93,No. 1 October 1978
GOLD HEADED CANE AWARD
7
But today, instead of recounting reminiscences, I shall examine the present and look to the promise of the future. For my assignment this morning is to present this year's Parke-Davis Award to Dr. Richard Alan Lerner. Under the conditions of the Parke-Davis Award, Dr. Lerner was chosen from among the membership of the AAP as the pathologist who has contributed the most to the conquest of disease. It was in 1956 that the American Society for Experimental Pathology established the Parke-Davis Award for meritorious work in experimental pathology. For 3 years, a three-man committee, Drs. J. G. Kidd, F. W. Hartman, and Paul Harris, had negotiated with Parke, Davis and Company for arrangements for the Award. Doctor Hartman acted on behalf of the Society and Doctors A. C. Bratton and L. W. Sweet represented the company. Under the terms arranged, the donors agreed to contribute a bronze medal and a substantial sum per annum in recognition of outstanding research by a young ASEP investigator not over 40 years of age. The following year, in 1957, the Award was presented for the first time. As Dr. Long has noted in his history of the Society, the award has fulfilled a highly important double purpose. It has recognized outstanding research by a young investigator and, as subsequent events have demonstrated, the award has proved to be a stimulant to the recipient to continue his performance in the future. The awardees have pursued distinguished careers in research and pathology. It is a particular pleasure for me to be asked to present this year's ParkeDavis Award, for during the entire period of the negotiations, I was a member of the Council of ASEP and the year the award was established, 1956, I was the president. H. A. Krebs has written that scientists are not so much born as made by those who teach them: that there is such a thing as a scientific geneology. Dr. Lerner exemplifies this dictum. Following graduation from Stanford University Medical School and internship at the Palo Alto Stanford hospital, he joined the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation as a Research Fellow in 1965. The very next year he published his first paper in the Joumal of Experimental Medicine. Dr. Frank J. Dixon was coauthor. Thus, Dr. Lerner was off to a good start, with his scientific geneology headed by Dr. Dixon. Significantly, Dr. Dixon was the first recipient of the Parke-Davis Award in 1957 and Dr. Lerner is the 22nd. The career of Dr. Lerner reveals many of the influences that Anne Roe found so significant to the success of the top American Scientists whose lives she studied. Most of them somehow or other, while young, found a teacher or an associate along the way who permitted them to find out
8
GOLD HEADED CANE AWARD
American Joumal of Pathology
things on their own. After that beginning, the young investigators learned to rely upon themselves. Research is, therefore, self learning. Its beginnings often require a primer in the person of a capable mentor, a role that Dr. Dixon has played in the distinguished career of Dr. Lerner. Substantial achievements in life have often followed group efforts applied to a single purpose, as has proved true in many fields of endeavor, including painting, poetry, architecture, and navigation. Medical investigators, like Dr. Lerner, require, apart from opportunity and adequate physical facilities, the motivation that can be supplied by understanding colleagues. They can offer encouragement, appreciation, criticism, competition, and solace. Such was the environment at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation where Dr. Lerner made his debut and where he continues to work. The environment there was well adapted to nurture his intellectual curiosity, for research ability, like talent in art, requires basic competence that must be nurtured. Thus, with the intelligence inherited from his parents combined with his natural industry, Dr. Lerner, with the support of his colleagues, has continued to produce scientific observations of the first order of importance. A review of his nearly 100 published titles reveals that authorship was shared with some 50 others. These then are Dr. Lerner's understanding colleagues who offered their encouragement, appreciation, criticism, and competition, all so necessary for the maturation of a scientist. Dr. Lerner's early research centered around the field of immunopathology: the demonstration of the presence of anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies in the kidneys of man and experimental animals with nephropathies. Latterly he has been working with oncogenic viruses: the chemical analysis of their glycoprotein coat and, in collaboration with Dr. W. P. Rowe, the demonstration that the murine leukemia virus is a recombinant derived from ecotropic and xenotropic parenteral viruses. The latter are viruses ordinarily carried by mice of strains, such as the AKR strain, that are susceptible to the viral induction of leukemia. Dr. Lerner's lecture is entitled " Recombinant Origins of Leukemogenic Murine Viruses.'"
On the day in mid February that Barry Pierce telephoned me the surprising and unexpected news that the council and officers of the Association had voted me this prestigious honor, the award of the Gold Headed Cane, the price of gold topped $180 an ounce on the London exchange. It was in the year 1919, when the price of gold was a fraction of this, that the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists awarded the first Gold Headed Cane. I couldn't help but calculate the amount of money the Association would have saved had it, at that time, purchased a sufficient quantity of gold to cover the head of the canes it was to award later. It was in the 1930s that I joined the American Society for Experimental Pathology and the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, the parent organizations of the AAP. The first meeting that I attended was the AAPB meeting in 1932 in Philadelphia. On the program was a paper given by my cousin, Dr. Benjamin Clawson, describing the structure of the subcutaneous nodules in chronic arthritis; Dr. Eugene Opie and Dr. Esmond Long gave a paper on cellular reactions in relation to sensitization and immunity in tuberculosis; and Dr. Henry Pinkerton gave one of his early reports on typhus and spotted fever rickettsia in tissue culture. The latter three, Drs. Opie, Long, and Pinkerton, subsequently became recipients of the Gold Headed Cane Award. The succeeding programs of both parent pathology organizations were of a similarly high quality. I have derived great benefit from my membership in both organizations and through them have acquired many close friends. My wish is for the continued success of the new Association. Esmond Long states in his entertaining history of the Gold Headed Cane that an obligation, in general terms, laid on each awardee was to prepare a manuscript containing notes on his experiences in medicine. The obligation has never been fulfilled. The reason, he opines, is that most recipients have been somewhat embarrassed at according themselves such a privilege. In my own case, my failure to conform to the obligation cannot be attributed to modesty. For from the disability of modesty, I do not suffer. Of many of those who wear the toga of modesty, my assessment corresponds to that of the late Sir Winston Churchill: speaking of one of his political opponents, Churchill declared, " He is a very modest man and he has much to be modest about." 6
Vol.93,No. 1 October 1978
GOLD HEADED CANE AWARD
7
But today, instead of recounting reminiscences, I shall examine the present and look to the promise of the future. For my assignment this morning is to present this year's Parke-Davis Award to Dr. Richard Alan Lerner. Under the conditions of the Parke-Davis Award, Dr. Lerner was chosen from among the membership of the AAP as the pathologist who has contributed the most to the conquest of disease. It was in 1956 that the American Society for Experimental Pathology established the Parke-Davis Award for meritorious work in experimental pathology. For 3 years, a three-man committee, Drs. J. G. Kidd, F. W. Hartman, and Paul Harris, had negotiated with Parke, Davis and Company for arrangements for the Award. Doctor Hartman acted on behalf of the Society and Doctors A. C. Bratton and L. W. Sweet represented the company. Under the terms arranged, the donors agreed to contribute a bronze medal and a substantial sum per annum in recognition of outstanding research by a young ASEP investigator not over 40 years of age. The following year, in 1957, the Award was presented for the first time. As Dr. Long has noted in his history of the Society, the award has fulfilled a highly important double purpose. It has recognized outstanding research by a young investigator and, as subsequent events have demonstrated, the award has proved to be a stimulant to the recipient to continue his performance in the future. The awardees have pursued distinguished careers in research and pathology. It is a particular pleasure for me to be asked to present this year's ParkeDavis Award, for during the entire period of the negotiations, I was a member of the Council of ASEP and the year the award was established, 1956, I was the president. H. A. Krebs has written that scientists are not so much born as made by those who teach them: that there is such a thing as a scientific geneology. Dr. Lerner exemplifies this dictum. Following graduation from Stanford University Medical School and internship at the Palo Alto Stanford hospital, he joined the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation as a Research Fellow in 1965. The very next year he published his first paper in the Joumal of Experimental Medicine. Dr. Frank J. Dixon was coauthor. Thus, Dr. Lerner was off to a good start, with his scientific geneology headed by Dr. Dixon. Significantly, Dr. Dixon was the first recipient of the Parke-Davis Award in 1957 and Dr. Lerner is the 22nd. The career of Dr. Lerner reveals many of the influences that Anne Roe found so significant to the success of the top American Scientists whose lives she studied. Most of them somehow or other, while young, found a teacher or an associate along the way who permitted them to find out
8
GOLD HEADED CANE AWARD
American Joumal of Pathology
things on their own. After that beginning, the young investigators learned to rely upon themselves. Research is, therefore, self learning. Its beginnings often require a primer in the person of a capable mentor, a role that Dr. Dixon has played in the distinguished career of Dr. Lerner. Substantial achievements in life have often followed group efforts applied to a single purpose, as has proved true in many fields of endeavor, including painting, poetry, architecture, and navigation. Medical investigators, like Dr. Lerner, require, apart from opportunity and adequate physical facilities, the motivation that can be supplied by understanding colleagues. They can offer encouragement, appreciation, criticism, competition, and solace. Such was the environment at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation where Dr. Lerner made his debut and where he continues to work. The environment there was well adapted to nurture his intellectual curiosity, for research ability, like talent in art, requires basic competence that must be nurtured. Thus, with the intelligence inherited from his parents combined with his natural industry, Dr. Lerner, with the support of his colleagues, has continued to produce scientific observations of the first order of importance. A review of his nearly 100 published titles reveals that authorship was shared with some 50 others. These then are Dr. Lerner's understanding colleagues who offered their encouragement, appreciation, criticism, and competition, all so necessary for the maturation of a scientist. Dr. Lerner's early research centered around the field of immunopathology: the demonstration of the presence of anti-glomerular basement membrane antibodies in the kidneys of man and experimental animals with nephropathies. Latterly he has been working with oncogenic viruses: the chemical analysis of their glycoprotein coat and, in collaboration with Dr. W. P. Rowe, the demonstration that the murine leukemia virus is a recombinant derived from ecotropic and xenotropic parenteral viruses. The latter are viruses ordinarily carried by mice of strains, such as the AKR strain, that are susceptible to the viral induction of leukemia. Dr. Lerner's lecture is entitled " Recombinant Origins of Leukemogenic Murine Viruses.'"
