In Memoriam

Claude T. Anderson, M.D. ’53, HS ’57, a scholar, writer, painter and self-taught musician, died June 26 of a heart attack at his home in Ramona, Calif. He was 80. Born on a farm in Chapin, Ill., Anderson developed a lifelong love for learning as a pupil in a one-room schoolhouse. In 1941, while at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., he was called to active duty in the Army Air Force as a navigator on B-17s. After the war he returned to Knox, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1947, then continued on to medical school at Yale, where he won the Ferris Prize in Anatomy. After his second year, he traveled to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and in two years earned bachelor’s degrees in physiology and pharmacology. Oxford awarded him an honorary master’s degree three years later. While in England, he proposed, via telegram, to his future wife, Evelyn Hamburger, R.N., Ph.D., M.N. ’50. Anderson returned to Yale, earning his medical degree in 1953 and serving on the house staff until 1957. He continued his Air Force career and earned a master’s degree in radiation biology while in the military. In 1972, he retired from the service at the rank of colonel and went on to an immunology fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center. While there, he earned a degree in philosophy. In 1979, he opened the South Texas Immunology Lab and served as its director. He retired to Ramona in the mid-1990s. Anderson wrote short stories, limericks and political satire for enjoyment; he was a voracious reader with a personal library exceeding 30,000 volumes. He dabbled in painting and taught himself to play more than a half-dozen musical instruments.

Joseph V. Baldwin, M.D. ’40, HS ’47, of Manchester, Conn., died June 27 at Manchester Memorial Hospital. He was 88. Baldwin attended Clark University and earned his medical degree from Yale. He started his residency training in pediatrics at Grace Hospital in New Haven in 1940 and was an assistant in the Clinic of Child Development until 1942. Baldwin then served in the Navy as lieutenant commander and flight surgeon during World War II. He returned to the hospital in 1946 as an assistant resident in pediatrics until 1947. While at Yale, Baldwin was a research assistant at the Clinic of Child Development from 1947 until 1948, working under Drs. Arnold L. Gesell and Catherine S. Armatruda, both pioneers in child development. In 1948 he became an instructor in pediatrics and at the Child Study Center. From 1949 until 1953, when he retired, Baldwin was a clinical instructor in pediatrics with an appointment in the Child Study Center.

Frank D. Carroll, M.D. ’32, of Rye, N.Y., died July 24. He was 95. Carroll received his undergraduate degree from Harvard in 1929 after three years of study; he then went on to Yale for his medical education. He interned at the Charles V. Chaplin and Rhode Island hospitals in Providence and completed his ophthalmology residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. He served as a research fellow in the department of ophthalmology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in New York. After his fellowship, Carroll was appointed to the faculty at Columbia. Upon his retirement, he held the title of clinical professor emeritus of ophthalmology.

Carroll had a private practice in Rye, N.Y., from which he retired in 1990. He was also in charge of the eye department of the United Hospital in Port Chester, N.Y., for 28 years and ran a free eye clinic there.

Anne B. Collart, M.P.H. ’66, a social worker and businesswoman, died April 18 at her home in Harwich Port, Mass. She was 61. Collart was raised in Plainfield, N.J., and graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois. She earned her master of public health degree from Yale and a master’s degree in social work from Fordham University in 2000. She worked as an epidemiologist for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and later as a computer trainer and consultant for various firms before founding her own company, ABC Computers. Fulfilling a lifelong dream in 2000, she returned to her family home in Harwich Port on Cape Cod. Collart was a clinical social worker with Child and Family Service of Cape Cod and a member of the National Association of Social Workers and the Massachusetts Society for Clinical Social Work. She was an accomplished sailor and avid golfer.

Richard B. Helgerson, M.D. ’71, died at his home in Madison, Wis., on April 19. He was 58. Raised on a dairy farm near Elk Point, S.D., Helgerson completed grade school in a one-room schoolhouse, the only member of his class. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1967 and his medical degree from Yale. In 1979, after completing his internship and residency training in general surgery and a fellowship in surgical infectious diseases at the University of Minnesota Hospitals, he joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin Medical School (UW) in the department of surgery. Helgerson had a 22-year career at UW, where he was director of the burn unit at University Hospitals and director of the General Surgery Residency Program. He was best known for his treatment of severely burned children because of his skills in burn wound management and skin grafting. Helgerson was a member of the Madison and Wisconsin surgical societies, the American Association of Burn Surgeons and the International Burn Society. Progressive illness cut short his career and forced his retirement in 2001.

Wilbur D. Johnston, D.D.S., M.D. ’37, of North Haven, Conn., died at his home on August 27. He was 92. Johnston, a specialist in orthodontics, received his dental degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from Yale. He served in the Army Medical Corps during World War II as a major and was awarded the Bronze Star. Johnston was appointed an assistant clinical professor of surgery at Yale in 1946 and was clinical professor of surgery (dental) at the time of his death. During his career, he received a certificate of honor from the New Haven Dental Association and numerous awards of merit.

Dunham Kirkham, M.D. ’37, of Union, Maine, died at his home on July 1 after a long illness. He was 92. Kirkham graduated from Dartmouth College in 1933 and received his medical degree from Yale. He was a member of the active Army reserve and served in the Pacific theater during World War II as a specialist in tropical medicine. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War and retired in 1969 after 27 years of service. His 53-year medical career as a civilian spanned much of the globe and included private practice, public health service and years with both the U.S. Veterans Administration and New York State. Kirkham retired in 1972 as head of the medical-surgical clinic at Sunmount State School in Tupper Lake, N.Y. He and his wife moved in 1988 to Union, where he enjoyed gardening and fishing.

Ruth Eiko Oda, M.D., HS ’54, of Hilo, Hawaii, died November 2, 2001, at the age of 73. Oda was a retired pediatrician who had practiced in Hilo for 43 years. She was a member of Piihonua Kumiai, a neighborhood assistance association, and the American Medical Association and was a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Samuel D. Rowley, M.D., M.P.H. ’69, of Orange Park, Fla., died at the Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla., on February 12, 2002, at the age of 82.

Born in Hartford, Conn., Rowley received a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and a master’s in public health from Yale. He practiced pediatrics in Hartford from 1951 until 1967. Rowley served as director of the Rentschler Pediatric Clinic from 1968 until 1972, when he moved to Florida. He was director of the Duval County Health Department from 1973 until 1985 and was on the board of directors of the Mental Health Clinic in Jacksonville. Rowley co-founded the Bridge of Northeast Florida, an agency that provides services for inner-city youth, and served as president and a member of its board for almost 30 years.

Morton A. Schiffer, M.D., of Norwalk, Conn., died July 26 at his home. He was 88. A native of New York City, Schiffer graduated from Alfred University and earned his medical degree in 1938 from Long Island College of Medicine. He served as a physician in the Navy during World War II. During his early career, he was director of the obstetrics and gynecology department at the Jewish Hospital and Medical Center in Brooklyn. He was there for 41 years. He also was an obstetrician and gynecologist-in-chief at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut. For 10 years starting in 1972, Schiffer was chair of the obstetric advisory committee to the New York City health commissioner. Schiffer joined the faculty at Yale in January 1994 and retired in 2001 as a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

Horace E. Thomas, M.D., HS ’36, a retired surgeon and active volunteer, died March 5, 2002, at his home in Columbia, Mo. He was 90. Thomas received his medical degree from Harvard and completed his internship at Yale. He served in the Army from 1940 to 1946 as a surgeon in military hospitals in Georgia, California and Australia. In 1947, he moved to Columbia, where he married Helen E. Yeager in 1949. During his career as a surgeon from 1947 until 1985, he practiced at Boone Hospital Center, Columbia Regional Hospital, Ellis Fischel Cancer Center and the Keller Memorial Hospital in Fayette, Mo. “I think he is the one surgeon in this community who really deserved the title of complete general surgeon,” said Frank Dexheimer, M.D., a colleague who knew him since 1960. He was the recipient of the Missouri University Alumni Service Award and the Boone County Medical Society’s Physician of the Year Award. Upon retiring, Thomas traded in his surgeon’s mask for a hard hat as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. He gave both his time and his money to the organization.

Thomas J. Trudell, M.P.H. ’75, CEO and president of Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights, Ohio, died July 3 of a stroke. He was 61. Born in New Britain, Conn., Trudell earned his bachelor’s degree from Providence College in Rhode Island. He served during the Vietnam War as an Army captain stationed in Thailand from 1966 until 1968. He continued with his education and received a master’s degree in business administration from Northeastern University and a master of public health degree from Yale. Trudell joined Marymount in 1979 as vice president for planning and development. In 1981, he became its chief executive officer and later became president. In his more than two decades at Marymount, he was credited with the development of new services and expansion of the hospital complex, which included the diagnostic and treatment building and outpatient care center. He led the hospital’s 1995 merger with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. In December 2000, in recognition of his contributions, the hospital renamed its Behavioral Health Center the Trudell Center. Trudell also served as chair of the Ohio Quality Cardiac Care Foundation and as a member of several committees and boards of the Cleveland Clinic system, including the Center for Health Affairs board.

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