Charles Harbison Herndon, M.D., of Cleveland, Ohio, one of the most respected and influential orthopaedists of his generation, died on July 27, 1997, at the age of eighty-two years.
Born in 1915 in Dublin, Texas, Charlie Herndon received his undergraduate education at the University of Texas and earned his M.D. degree from Harvard University in 1940. After having completed his surgical internship at the University Hospitals of Cleveland, he entered the United States Army in 1941 as a First Lieutenant and volunteered to serve at the American Hospital in Oxford, England, under the direction of Philip D. Wilson, Sr., M.D. He subsequently served in the Third and Twenty-third Station Hospitals and in the Second General Hospital throughout the entire European campaign; he was discharged with the rank of Major in January 1946. He began his orthopaedic residency at The Hospital for Special Surgery, then a small red-brick building on 42nd Street in New York City. On completion of his residency, in 1947, he returned to the University Hospitals of Case Western Reserve University Hospital in Cleveland to become its first full-time orthopaedic surgeon. He established the first full-time Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at that institution in 1953; the division became a full department in 1978. In relatively few years, his stewardship had made possible the development of a faculty and a resident program that today are regarded as among the finest in the nation.
Charlie was an early pioneer in orthopaedic research, primarily in the field of bone transplantation, and he inspired generations of faculty and residents to become involved in research. His clinical interests were broad, as were those of most of his generation before the development of multiple orthopaedic subspecialties. He was the author or coauthor of fifty-seven publications, and he continued to write on a wide range of topics, particularly those related to pediatric orthopaedics, until the time of his retirement in 1982.
The many honors and offices that were received or held by Charlie Herndon during his long and distinguished career were richly deserved and are too numerous to list exhaustively. Charlie served as a Trustee of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery from 1969 to 1974; as a member of The American Orthopaedic Association in 1955; and as President of the Orthopaedic Research Society in 1957, of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery from 1964 to 1966, of The Association of Orthopaedic Chairmen in 1975, and of The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons from 1967 to 1968. It was as President of The Academy that he made his most distinctive mark: under his guidance and direction, the prophetic National Health Plan for Orthopaedics (NHPO) was developed. This was the first such plan proposed by a national medical organization. It was typical of Charlie's foresight that the idea of regular recertification of orthopaedists was first proposed in the NHPO. This proposal caused an uproar among a small yet vociferous group of orthopaedists who vigorously attacked the concept. However, Charlie stuck to his guns like the Texan that he was, and, with time, although not without much travail, recertification became the fact of life that it is today.
Charlie served on numerous committees in the orthopaedic community and participated in a wide range of interdisciplinary activities, as exemplified by his presidency of the Council of Medical Specialists Society in 1976. In recognition of his many services to the Case Western Reserve University Medical School, an endowed Chair of Orthopaedics was established in his name in 1979.
It was a richly rewarding and exciting experience to know and to be educated by Charlie Herndon, as generations of his residents can attest. An outwardly reserved and occasionally stern manner inspired the best from others, but there was no better teacher by precept or example. His inner warmth and his concern for his resident staff and faculty were shown in numerous ways, but many of his former residents will confess that it took years before they allowed themselves to address him as Charlie.
Charlie is survived by his wife, Kathryn Ann Blair (Kay), whom he married in 1944; two sons, Charles L., a sculptor, of Columbus, Ohio, and David N., a general surgeon, of Galveston, Texas; and three grandchildren.
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