Arthur C. Guyton, MD

Abstract

The sudden loss of Dr Arthur C. Guyton in an automobile accident on April 3, 2003 and the loss of his devoted and remarkable wife, Ruth Weigle Guyton, one week later as a result of injuries from the accident stunned and saddened all who were privileged to know them. Arthur Guyton was a giant in the fields of physiology and medicine, a leader among leaders, a master teacher, and an inspiring role model for people throughout the world. Arthur Clifton Guyton was born in Oxford, Mississippi, to Dr William (Billy) S. Guyton, an eye, ear, nose, and throat specialist and dean of the University of Mississippi Medical School, and Kate Smallwood Guyton, a math and physics teacher who had been a missionary in China before their marriage. During his formative years, he enjoyed watching his father work at the Guyton Clinic, playing chess and swapping stories with William Faulkner, and building sailboats (one of which he later sold to Faulkner) and countless mechanical and electrical devices, which he continued to do throughout his life. Arthur Guyton’s brilliance shone early. He graduated top in his class at the University of Mississippi, distinguished himself at Harvard Medical School, and began his postgraduate surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital. His medical training was interrupted twice—once to serve in the Navy during World War II and again in 1946 when he was stricken with poliomyelitis during his final year of residency training. Suffering paralysis in his right leg, left arm, and both shoulders, he spent nine months in Warm Springs, Georgia, recuperating and applying his inventive mind to building the first motorized wheelchair controlled by a “joy stick,” motorized hoists for lifting patients, special leg braces, and other devices to aid the handicapped. For those inventions he received a Presidential Citation. He returned to …