In Memoriam

Samuel D. Kushlan, M.D. ’35, HS ’38, a pathbreaking New Haven gastroenterologist and one of the oldest living alumni of the School of Medicine, died on October 16. He was 98. A mentor and role model for generations of physicians in training at Yale, Kushlan had continued to teach as a retired clinical professor of medicine until last summer. Born in New Britain, Conn., in 1912, the son of Lithuanian immigrants, by the age of 10 Kushlan knew that he wanted to be a physician. He was admitted to the School of Medicine after his junior year at Yale College and, upon graduation in 1935, won the Campbell Prize, awarded to graduating students who secure the highest rank on Step Two of the National Board Examination. He conducted his student research and wrote his thesis under the supervision of Francis Gilman Blake, M.D., the chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and a world-renowned expert on infectious disease. Following medical school, Kushlan trained as an intern and resident at what was then New Haven Hospital. His main diagnostic tools were the medical history and physical exam. X-rays were the only imaging technique available, and in those pre-penicillin days, the principal medications were aspirin, digitalis, phenobarbital, quinine, and morphine. Except for a brief stint at Harvard in 1938, Kushlan spent his entire career at Yale. He established the Section of Gastroenterology in 1938 and was the first physician in Connecticut to perform gastroscopic endoscopy. For many years he maintained an active practice in New Haven and provided consultations throughout central Connecticut. In 2001, Kushlan was awarded the medical school’s highest honor, the Peter Parker Medal, and in 2003 the Connecticut Chapter of the American College of Physicians bestowed upon him its Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2007, he received the Yale Medal in recognition of his innumerable contributions to his alma mater.

Robert W. McCollum Jr., M.D., Ph.D., HS ’51, a professor and dean of public health for almost 30 years who made significant contributions to the understanding of viral diseases, died of heart failure on September 13 at his home in Etna, N.H. He was 85. In the 1950s, McCollum worked with a Yale team, led by Dorothy M. Horstmann, M.D., that used blood samples from polio patients to isolate the polio virus and discovered that before it reached the spinal cord and paralyzed patients, it circulated in the blood. That finding formed a basis for the development of polio vaccines. In 1982 McCollum left Yale to become dean of the Dartmouth Medical School, where he played a central role in the creation of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.

David F. Musto, M.D., HS ’67, professor of psychiatry in the Child Study Center and professor of the history of medicine, died on October 8 in Shanghai, China. He was there for a ceremony marking the donation of his books and papers on the history of drug policy to Shanghai University and the establishment there of a Center for International Drug Control Policy Studies. He was 74. Musto, a member of the Yale faculty since 1969, was internationally recognized as an historian of drug policy. Following his residency at Yale Musto served in the U.S. Public Health Service as special assistant to the director, National Institute of Mental Health, until 1969. He published widely on the social history of policies involving alcohol, narcotics, AIDS, and mental health and is known for his study of drug policy, The American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control, published in 1973. He was a member of the White House Strategy Council on Drug Abuse Policy during the Carter administration, historical advisor to the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs from 1978 to 1980, a member of the National Council of the Smithsonian Institution from 1981 to 1990, and historical consultant to the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Epidemic. He also served on the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s program to combat drug and alcohol abuse, was a charter fellow of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence, and was a member of the alcohol advisory committee of the National Association of Broadcasters.

David A. Berkowitz, M.D. ’69, died on October 28 in Newton, Mass. He was 66.

F. Calvin Bigler, M.D. ’57, died on July 16 in Winfield, Kan. He was 78.

Levon Boyajian, M.D. ’56, died on March 22 in Englewood, N.J. He was 80.

Stephen C. Cary, M.D. ’61, HS ’64, died on October 29 in Ashland, Ore. He was 78.

Robert V. Diserens, M.D. ’58, died on November 8 in Phoenix, Ariz. He was 77.

Richard E. Dormont, M.D. ’40, died on July 5 in Minot, N.D. He was 95.

Robert S. Easton, M.D. ’45, died on January 6 at his home in Peoria, Ill. He was 88.

Lloyd D. Flint, M.D. ’41, died on February 2 at his home in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He was 92.

Frank L. Golbranson, M.D. ’47, died on January 10 in San Diego, Calif. He was 88.

Stanley I. Greenspan, M.D. ’66, died on April 27 in Bethesda, Md., of complications from a stroke. He was 68.

William K. Hadley, M.D. ’59, died on March 1 in San Francisco, Calif. He was 81.

O. Roger Hollan, M.D. ’45, HS ’46, died on August 25 of complications related to heart disease. He was 87.

Robert L. Janco, M.D. ’70, died on March 9 in Malvern, Pa. He was 66.

Haskins K. Kashima, M.D. ’58, died on November 11 of complications from Alzheimer disease in Lutherville, Md. He was 78.

Jay W. Kislak, M.D. ’58, HS ’59, died on June 24 in Truro, Mass. He was 76.

Eugene G. McCarthy, M.D. ’60, died on November 16 in New York City. He was 76.

William F. O’Connell, M.D. ’45, died on September 29 in Red Bluff, Calif. He was 88.

Philip H. Philbin, M.D. ’47, died of pneumonia on October 10 in Bethesda, Md. He was 88.

Jack S. Rice Jr., M.D. ’64, died on November 5 in San Angelo, Texas. He was 71.

Lee S. Sannella, M.D. ’40, died on March 19 in Santa Rosa, Calif. He was 93.

Send obituary notices to Claire M. Bessinger, Yale Medicine Publications, 1 Church Street, Suite 300, New Haven, CT 06510, or via e-mail to claire.bessinger@yale.edu