Famous & Outstanding Anatomy Professors I Have Known or with Whom I Have Taught

Abstract

The first two outstanding anatomists I wish to discuss are William Frederic Windle and Horace Winchell Magoun, both students of Stephen Walter Ranson in Chicago.I became acquainted with Bill Windle 60 years ago in 1949 while he was Chairman of Anatomy at the University of Pennsylvania. He interviewed me before my being accepted into graduate school at Penn and his principal question was, “Are you a good student?” I told him that I received A's and B's during my four years at Penn. He replied that is not good enough. He required all A's during the first two graduate school years. His next question was, “Do you have a microscope?” My brother had graduated from the Penn Medical School and I said I'm sure I could get his microscope. Then Dr. Windle said, “Come around in September. We will find a place for you.”I will talk also about my interaction with Professor Horace Magoun who offered me my first job at UCLA. He became my close friend, often advising me through the early years of my academic life.Giving my first paper to the AAA in Detroit, Michigan in 1951 after my second graduate school year, I was nervous and scared. When I started my talk. I noticed that in the audience was the famous Horace Magoun, the discoverer of the Reticular Activating System in the brain stem, responsible for maintaining wakefulness behavior. Later that day I was stunned when he asked me if, when I finished at Penn, I would consider joining him at Los Angeles where UCLA had just opened its medical school.Over the years I also met or taught with such famous professors as John Boilieu Grant, Raymond Jack Last and Oscar Vivian Batson.