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Dorothy Hansine Andersen
THE JOURNAL OF
PEDIATRICS OCTOBER
1964
Volume 65
Number 4
Dorothy Hansine Andersen Douglas S. Damrosch, M.D. N E W YORK~ N. Y.
DOROTHY ANDERSEN was born in Asheville, North Carolina, on May 15, 1901. Her father, Hans Peter Andersen, was a native of the Danish island of Bornholm who came to the United States at the age of 8. Her mother, Mary Louise Mason, was a Chicagoan but of old New England stock and, upon the death of Dorothy's father in 1914, she and her mother took up residence in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Dorothy considered herself a Vermonter. Following her graduation from St. Johnsbury Academy, Dorothy went on to receive the Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1922, that of Doctor of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1926, and the degree of Doctor of Medical Science from Columbia University in 1935. She held the diploma of the American Board of Pathology. In 1926 and 1927 she was an Assistant in Anatomy at the University of Rochester
and during the following year she served a surgical internship at the Strong Memorial Hospital. In 1929 she joined the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University as an Assistant in Pathology, thence rising through the ranks to that of Professor of Pathology. In 1935, following the retirement of Martha Wollstein as pathologist to the Babies Hospital, she joined Beryl Paige as Assistant Pathologist and later succeeded Dr. Paige as Pathologist. Dorothy held appointments in Babies and Presbyterian Hospitals, both as Pathologist and Pediatrician. Dorothy was a member of numerous learned societies, a consultant to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Honorary Chairman of the National Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation. Among her honors were the Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research (1938), the Borden Award for Research in Nutrition (1948), Citation of Mount Holyoke College ( 1952), Elizabeth Blackwell Award (1954), the Great Heart Award of the Variety
From the Department o[ Pediatrics, Columbia University, 622 West 168th Street, New York, N. Y. 10032
477
47g
Darnrosch
Dr. Andersen at gliig party in her laboratory.
Club of Philadelphia (1963), the Distinguished Service Medal of the ColumbiaPresbyterian Medical Center (1963). Dorothy's early investigations were in the area of endocrine pathology. In 1938 she published her classical work on "Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas and its Relation to Celiac Disease."' This marked the beginning of a twenty-five year period of extraordinarily fruitful clinical and laboratory investigation in this area, and it is with cystic fibrosis that her name will probably always be linked. She pursued this work with complete dedication, determination, and resourcefulness. Trained neither as a chemist nor as a clinical pediatrician, she met the demands of her cystic fibrosis work by training herself along these lines and in the course of time became an able clinician, always with a sense of humility and an awareness of her limitations, though the awareness usually exceeded the limitations. Though she was now extensively engaged in her cystic fibrosis work, she was able in addition to make significant contributions in such diverse areas as glycogen storage
October 1964
disease and congenital abnormalities of the cardiovascular system. Years before a knowledge of congenital cardiovascular anomalies was of anything more than academic interest, Dorothy was busy cataloguing these abnormalities and accumulating an extensive museum of specimens. All this was to be of tremendous help to pediatric cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons. At their request, she conducted courses in the embryology and anatomy of cardiovascular abnormalities, and these sessions contributed materially to the training of those who were to be responsible for the development of open-heart surgery in the New York area. In addition she conducted seminars for the Babies Hospital staff through which a more and more physiologic approach to cardiac abnormalities was deveIoped. In the midst of all these other activities, Dorothy managed to carry on a large service load for the hospital, a full teaching schedule, and numerous carefully prepared clinicopathologic conferences. The only complaints heard from her were the sort of dry, laconic remarks that you would expect from a Vermont farmer contemplating the amount of granite to be removed from a potential pasture. Dorothy was a shy person and perhaps even a lonely one. In spite of her host of friends and colleagues and in spite of her geniality and dry New England humor, she maintained a basic reserve which people for the most part respected. While she did not intrude upon the privacy of her friends, her hospitality was unbounded and literally scores of friends shared her home at one ~ime or another. She freely offered her friendship; her loyalty to friends was unquestioned. Her Yankee self-sufficiency prevented her from inflicting her problems upon her friends and her modesty made her slow to advise, though her advice was always worth having. One of her great joys was her farm about which she wrote as follows: " M y chief hobby is my 'farm', a primitive retreat well hidden in the Kittitinny range of northern New
Volume 65 Number 4
Jersey. My guests find some of the entertainment strenuous, for they shared in building the fireplace, the kitchen chimney and in doing carpentry and other manual labor around the place. It is also a good place for sketching, photography, birds, flowers, cooking, eating and conversation." Dorothy found relaxation in hard manual labor and satisfaction in the skilled use of her hands. She became an expert carpenter, stone mason, cabinet maker and woodsman, wielding an axe or a scythe with professional proficiency. Many young house officers from the hospital were her weekend guests and though they were never made to feel obliged to work, they almost invariably found her joy in manual labor infectious and found themselves working along with her with a new respect added to that for her scientific ability. Many of them experienced on these weekends, their first real appreciation for what the out-of-doors had to offer. At the end of the day came the bounteous meal which Dorothy cooked on her wood stove and an evening of good talk and stimulating discussion. These were weekends to remember.
Dorothy Hansine Andersen
4 79
Dorothy's appearance at work was casual, her coiffure somewhat wind-blown, and a cigarette dangling from a corner of her mouth was an almost constant part of her costume. During conversation in her laboratory, she was usually too preoccupied to dispose of cigarette ash, which then became, in fact, a part of her costume. Each year the Christmas season officially began at Babies Hospital with Dorothy's gliig party, held in her laboratory. Dorothy herself concocted the gliig--a hot, aromatic brew made of burgundy, cognac, cinnamon, cloves, and Thor knows what else. They were fine parties. Dorothy died on March 3, 1963, of carcinoma of the lung. She conducted her campaign against this illness with the same rugged spirit with which she had tackled earlier problems. Characteristically, she shouldered the full burden herself. Institutions take on a kind of spiritual patina colored by the personalities of their people. The depth and warmth of Dorothy's personality are integral parts of Babies Hospital.
PEDIATRICS OCTOBER
1964
Volume 65
Number 4
Dorothy Hansine Andersen Douglas S. Damrosch, M.D. N E W YORK~ N. Y.
DOROTHY ANDERSEN was born in Asheville, North Carolina, on May 15, 1901. Her father, Hans Peter Andersen, was a native of the Danish island of Bornholm who came to the United States at the age of 8. Her mother, Mary Louise Mason, was a Chicagoan but of old New England stock and, upon the death of Dorothy's father in 1914, she and her mother took up residence in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Dorothy considered herself a Vermonter. Following her graduation from St. Johnsbury Academy, Dorothy went on to receive the Bachelor of Arts degree from Mount Holyoke College in 1922, that of Doctor of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1926, and the degree of Doctor of Medical Science from Columbia University in 1935. She held the diploma of the American Board of Pathology. In 1926 and 1927 she was an Assistant in Anatomy at the University of Rochester
and during the following year she served a surgical internship at the Strong Memorial Hospital. In 1929 she joined the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University as an Assistant in Pathology, thence rising through the ranks to that of Professor of Pathology. In 1935, following the retirement of Martha Wollstein as pathologist to the Babies Hospital, she joined Beryl Paige as Assistant Pathologist and later succeeded Dr. Paige as Pathologist. Dorothy held appointments in Babies and Presbyterian Hospitals, both as Pathologist and Pediatrician. Dorothy was a member of numerous learned societies, a consultant to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Honorary Chairman of the National Cystic Fibrosis Research Foundation. Among her honors were the Mead Johnson Award for Pediatric Research (1938), the Borden Award for Research in Nutrition (1948), Citation of Mount Holyoke College ( 1952), Elizabeth Blackwell Award (1954), the Great Heart Award of the Variety
From the Department o[ Pediatrics, Columbia University, 622 West 168th Street, New York, N. Y. 10032
477
47g
Darnrosch
Dr. Andersen at gliig party in her laboratory.
Club of Philadelphia (1963), the Distinguished Service Medal of the ColumbiaPresbyterian Medical Center (1963). Dorothy's early investigations were in the area of endocrine pathology. In 1938 she published her classical work on "Cystic Fibrosis of the Pancreas and its Relation to Celiac Disease."' This marked the beginning of a twenty-five year period of extraordinarily fruitful clinical and laboratory investigation in this area, and it is with cystic fibrosis that her name will probably always be linked. She pursued this work with complete dedication, determination, and resourcefulness. Trained neither as a chemist nor as a clinical pediatrician, she met the demands of her cystic fibrosis work by training herself along these lines and in the course of time became an able clinician, always with a sense of humility and an awareness of her limitations, though the awareness usually exceeded the limitations. Though she was now extensively engaged in her cystic fibrosis work, she was able in addition to make significant contributions in such diverse areas as glycogen storage
October 1964
disease and congenital abnormalities of the cardiovascular system. Years before a knowledge of congenital cardiovascular anomalies was of anything more than academic interest, Dorothy was busy cataloguing these abnormalities and accumulating an extensive museum of specimens. All this was to be of tremendous help to pediatric cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons. At their request, she conducted courses in the embryology and anatomy of cardiovascular abnormalities, and these sessions contributed materially to the training of those who were to be responsible for the development of open-heart surgery in the New York area. In addition she conducted seminars for the Babies Hospital staff through which a more and more physiologic approach to cardiac abnormalities was deveIoped. In the midst of all these other activities, Dorothy managed to carry on a large service load for the hospital, a full teaching schedule, and numerous carefully prepared clinicopathologic conferences. The only complaints heard from her were the sort of dry, laconic remarks that you would expect from a Vermont farmer contemplating the amount of granite to be removed from a potential pasture. Dorothy was a shy person and perhaps even a lonely one. In spite of her host of friends and colleagues and in spite of her geniality and dry New England humor, she maintained a basic reserve which people for the most part respected. While she did not intrude upon the privacy of her friends, her hospitality was unbounded and literally scores of friends shared her home at one ~ime or another. She freely offered her friendship; her loyalty to friends was unquestioned. Her Yankee self-sufficiency prevented her from inflicting her problems upon her friends and her modesty made her slow to advise, though her advice was always worth having. One of her great joys was her farm about which she wrote as follows: " M y chief hobby is my 'farm', a primitive retreat well hidden in the Kittitinny range of northern New
Volume 65 Number 4
Jersey. My guests find some of the entertainment strenuous, for they shared in building the fireplace, the kitchen chimney and in doing carpentry and other manual labor around the place. It is also a good place for sketching, photography, birds, flowers, cooking, eating and conversation." Dorothy found relaxation in hard manual labor and satisfaction in the skilled use of her hands. She became an expert carpenter, stone mason, cabinet maker and woodsman, wielding an axe or a scythe with professional proficiency. Many young house officers from the hospital were her weekend guests and though they were never made to feel obliged to work, they almost invariably found her joy in manual labor infectious and found themselves working along with her with a new respect added to that for her scientific ability. Many of them experienced on these weekends, their first real appreciation for what the out-of-doors had to offer. At the end of the day came the bounteous meal which Dorothy cooked on her wood stove and an evening of good talk and stimulating discussion. These were weekends to remember.
Dorothy Hansine Andersen
4 79
Dorothy's appearance at work was casual, her coiffure somewhat wind-blown, and a cigarette dangling from a corner of her mouth was an almost constant part of her costume. During conversation in her laboratory, she was usually too preoccupied to dispose of cigarette ash, which then became, in fact, a part of her costume. Each year the Christmas season officially began at Babies Hospital with Dorothy's gliig party, held in her laboratory. Dorothy herself concocted the gliig--a hot, aromatic brew made of burgundy, cognac, cinnamon, cloves, and Thor knows what else. They were fine parties. Dorothy died on March 3, 1963, of carcinoma of the lung. She conducted her campaign against this illness with the same rugged spirit with which she had tackled earlier problems. Characteristically, she shouldered the full burden herself. Institutions take on a kind of spiritual patina colored by the personalities of their people. The depth and warmth of Dorothy's personality are integral parts of Babies Hospital.