In Memoriam

Philip B. Chase, M.D. ’43, of Farmington, Conn., died March 24 at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston at the age of 86. After graduating from Yale, Chase served his internship at Albany Hospital in New York. He then entered the Army Medical Corps during World War II and was stationed at the Aspinwall Veterans Hospital in Pittsburgh. He retired as a captain in 1946 and moved to Strong, Pa., where he worked for two years as a family practitioner. In 1948 he had a year of postgraduate training in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1949 he married Kathleen Knippel of West Bend, Wis., and then moved to Farmington, where he had a general practice of medicine. In 1963 he became a physician at the Student Health Service of Tufts University in Medford, Mass.

Richard J. Cleveland, M.D., HS ’61, of Wellesley, Mass., died June 11 at Tufts-New England Medical Center after a long battle with brain cancer. He was 70. Cleveland received his bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia (MCV). He completed his postgraduate training at Yale and MCV. During his career, Cleveland was chief of cardiovascular surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, chair of surgery at Tufts and surgeon-in-chief at the New England Medical Center. He also served on the Tufts faculty as professor of surgery and was chair of cardiothoracic surgery at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center of Boston. Cleveland served as a member of the Tufts Office of International Health Affairs and was a health care consultant.

Jack W. Cole, M.D. ’66, of Camden, Maine, died June 17. He was 81. Cole earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1939 and his medical degree in 1944 from Washington University in St. Louis, Mo. After completing his surgical residency at the University Hospital of Cleveland, he taught at Western Reserve University. Cole then served as captain in the Army Medical Corps and as chief of surgery of the 120th Station in Bayreuth, Germany. In 1963 he became professor and chair of the department of surgery. Cole joined the faculty at Yale in 1966 as ensign professor and chair of the department of surgery. He then served as director of the division of oncology and of the Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center from 1975 until 1984, when he became vice chair for the department of surgery under William F. Collins Jr., M.D. Cole was also a professor at the Institution for Social and Policy Studies. During the late 1960s, Cole was awarded a $3 million grant for improvement in the area of trauma care. As part of the endeavor, the Yale Physician Associate Program (YPAP) was conceived to train medical personnel to assist in surgical and medical management. In 2001, on the 30th anniversary of the YPAP, Cole was honored as its founder.

J. Russell Elkinton, M.D., former professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, died April 6 in Concord, Mass., at the age of 91. Born in Moylan, Pa., Elkinton earned his medical degree from Harvard in 1937. He came to Yale in 1940 as a research and visiting fellow in medicine, where he focused on the study of body fluids and electrolyte physiology. In 1942 he became an instructor in medicine and in 1945 was named assistant professor. Elkinton was recruited in 1948 by Penn to develop its chemical section into a top research center in blood chemistry and kidney disease. In 1962 he was named a full professor. Elkinton, editor emeritus of the Annals of Internal Medicine, edited the twice-monthly publication of the American College of Physicians from 1960 to 1971. Circulation more than doubled during his term. He also published a number of books and scientific papers, the last in 1985 on migraine headaches, from which he suffered.

Carl Gagliardi, M.D. ’50, a pediatrician from La Plata, Md., died at his home on February 19 of liver disease. He was 81. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Yale, Gagliardi was a captain in the Army Air Corps during World War II, serving as director of the School of Tropical Meteorology in the Panama Canal Zone. He earned his medical degree at Yale and went on to teach at Wayne State University and the University of Michigan. Gagliardi practiced at the Downriver Pediatric Associates in Lincoln Park, Mich., for 27 years before moving to Maryland upon his retirement in 1990. He was a president of the Wayne County and Michigan medical societies and a delegate to the American Medical Association for six years.

John H. Killough, M.D. ’45, of Granbury, Texas, died at the age of 83 on April 12 in Weatherford, Texas. Born in Dallas, Killough served in the Navy during World War II. He was a graduate of Southern Methodist and Johns Hopkins universities and attended Yale and the University of Pennsylvania medical schools. During his career Killough worked at the Naval Medical Research Center in Cairo for eight years.

Knowles B. Lawrence, M.D. ’34, of Needham, Mass., died May 10 at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center from complications following surgery. He was 93. Lawrence, a graduate of Yale College and the School of Medicine, served in the Army with the Sixth General Hospital during World War II. During his medical career he was an associate professor of surgery at Boston University School of Medicine and chief of surgery at Glover Memorial Hospital in Needham.

Gustaf E. Lindskog, M.D., former chair of the Department of Surgery, died August 4. He was 99. Born in Boston, Lindskog graduated from the Massachusetts Agricultural College (now University of Massachusetts) and spent a year at Princeton pursuing a graduate degree in botany. He changed his field of interest to pediatric medicine and earned his medical degree from Harvard in 1928. Lindskog did his residency training in surgery at Yale from 1929 until 1932. After a year as a National Research Council Fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he returned to Yale. In 1936 he became an assistant professor of surgery (gastroenterology). He was an associate professor of surgery (gastroenterology) from 1942 until 1948 when he attained full professorship. Lindskog was named the William H. Carmalt Professor Emeritus of Surgery in 1971. During his tenure at Yale he was also chair of the department of surgery from 1960 until 1966. During World War II, Lindskog served for four years as a commander in the Navy Medical Corps and was stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Yard. In 1943 the field of chemotherapy developed at Yale with the work of Drs. Louis S. Goodman, Alfred Gilman and Lindskog, when they used nitrogen mustard in the treatment of a patient with lymphosarcoma.

Joseph Massaro, M.D. ’44, died at Manchester Memorial Hospital in Connecticut on March 6 at the age of 89. Massaro earned his bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Maine in 1934. He was employed by the Dupont Chemical Company and the State of Connecticut Health Department before pursuing a medical degree at Yale. He interned and was on the staff at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. In 1946 Massaro established a practice in Manchester; he also was on the staff at Manchester Memorial Hospital and a past president of the medical staff. He was president of the Manchester Medical Association, the Hartford County Academy of General Practice and the Connecticut Academy of General Practice. He retired in 1977.

Harry D. Patton, Ph.D. ’43, M.D. ’46, former chair of the University of Washington (UW) department of physiology and biophysics, died of cancer on May 26 at the age of 84. Patton graduated from the University of Arkansas and earned his doctoral and medical degrees from Yale. In 1948 he joined the newly established department of physiology and biophysics at UW and served as chair from 1966 to 1983. During his years as a teacher and researcher, Patton was known for his editing and major contributions to a basic textbook, Physiology and Biophysics. He was also co-author of Introduction to Basic Neurology. Patton and his colleagues were among the first in the world to record the electrical activity of individual cells in the spinal cord. He also contributed to research on the spinal-nerve pathways responsible for muscle control. Among his life’s pleasures, Patton built furniture, a harpsichord and a clavichord in his basement wood shop in his Madrona, Wash., home. He and his family also loved cruising on their boat in Puget Sound, and to Alaska and the San Juan Islands in Washington.

Henry A. Riedel, M.D. ’43, a retired pediatrician, died June 7 at his home in Dana Point, Calif. He was 86. Riedel earned a degree in economics at Northwestern University before going on to Yale for his medical degree. He interned at Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed his residency at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, serving as chief resident in his last year. From 1945 to 1947, Riedel was a medical officer in the Army. He set up a practice in Beverly Hills, Calif., and in 1954 he moved to New-port Beach, Calif., to establish one of the area’s first medical practices. He remained a solo practitioner, making house calls until his retirement in 1974, then working as a school physician for the Los Angeles Unified School District until 1981. Riedel was a founding member of the Orange County Pediatric Society (since renamed California Chapter 4, American Academy of Pediatrics), and served on the staffs of Hoag Memorial and St. Joseph’s hospitals, Children’s Hospital of Orange County and the University of Southern California and University of California at Irvine medical schools.

Albert J. Solnit, M.D., HS ’52, former Connecticut commissioner of mental health and addiction services and a pioneering force in child psychiatry, died June 21 following an auto accident in Litchfield County, Conn. He was 82. A native of Los Angeles, Solnit came to Yale in 1948 as a psychiatric resident. In 1949 he joined the faculty as an instructor in psychiatry and in 1952 he was also appointed an instructor in pediatrics. From 1953 to 1960 he held the title of assistant professor of pediatrics and psychiatry and in 1960 advanced to associate professor. In 1963 he joined the Child Study Center, and in 1966 was named director, a position he held until 1983. From 1964 to 1970 Solnit was a professor in the departments of pediatrics and psychiatry and in the Child Study Center. In 1970 he was named a Sterling Professor, attaining emeritus status in 1990. Solnit served as commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) from 1991 until 2000. He also headed Gov. John G. Rowland’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Mental Health. Solnit was “an absolute champion of the child,” said Benjamin S. Bunney, M.D., chair of psychiatry. “No matter what position he held, whether it was at the Child Study Center or with the DMHAS, he was as great a champion as there will ever be for that cause.”

Frank B. Wisner, M.D. ’32, died February 7 at Knapp Memorial Hospital in Weslaco, Texas, at the age of 95. Born and raised in Montana, Wisner practiced medicine in Springfield, Mass., after receiving his medical degree from Yale. He then enlisted in the Navy during World War II and served as a lieutenant commander aboard the USS Cossatot from 1942 to 1945. After the war he practiced for five years in Mercedes, Texas, before moving to San Diego, where he was in practice for 30 years.

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