Paul Rogers Lipscomb died in his home on September 3, 2004, following a
long illness and complications. Throughout his forty-three-year career in
medicine, Paul displayed the admirable qualities of responsibility and patient
communication and exemplified the ideals that orthopaedic surgeons strive to
live by. He taught his residents and students how to be doctors, not just
orthopaedic surgeons.
Paul R. Lipscomb was born in Clio, South Carolina, in 1914. After
graduating from high school in Clio, he attended Vanderbilt University for one
year. He then transferred to the University of South Carolina in Columbia,
South Carolina, where he graduated in 1934. He received his medical degree
from the Medical College of South Carolina in Charleston in 1938. Already
showing his leadership potential, he was vicepresident of his graduating
class.
After an internship at Cooper Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, Paul
completed his orthopaedic residency at the Mayo Foundation at the University
of Minnesota in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1942, he received his Masters of
Science in Orthopaedic Surgery from the Mayo Graduate School. Dr. Ralph K.
Gormley, the Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery, at that time had a very attractive
and capable young secretary, Phyllis Oesterreich. Paul married Phyllis on July
20, 1940, and together they forged a marital bond that lasted until his
death.
During the final years of his residency, Paul Lipscomb was called on to
train physicians of the armed services. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he
was prevailed upon to remain at the Mayo Clinic rather than volunteer for
military duty. This was a decision he regretted, in some ways, because it
deprived him of the privilege of fulfilling his patriotic duty. In 1953, he
was sent to San Francisco to train under Sterling Bunnell. He then returned to
the Mayo Clinic, where he established the hand service.
Paul's first appointment to a national committee was in 1955, when he was
named Chairman of the Scientific Investigation Committee of the American
Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. In 1956, he served as Chairman of the
Membership Committee of the Orthopaedic Research Society and was a member of
its Executive Committee. In 1958, he became Chairman of the Program Committee
of the American Orthopaedic Association, and, in 1960, he became Chairman of
the Program Committee for the American Society for Surgery of the Hand. In
1961, he was promoted to Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Mayo
Foundation at the University of Minnesota.
From 1961 to 1963, Paul served as Chairman of the Instructional Course
Committee of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, in which capacity
he edited the Instructional Course Lectures that are published in a
special section of The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. From 1966
to 1967, he was an associate editor of Mayo Clinic Proceedings and
served on the Editorial Board of that publication.
His leadership in many other societies was extraordinary. In 1967, Paul was
elected Director of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. He was elected
President of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1971 and served
until 1973. During his tenure on the Board, Paul was influential in
standardizing the certification examination, working with Dr. George Miller
and the University of Illinois Center for Continuing Medical Education.
He served as Secretary of the American Orthopaedic Association from 1967
through 1971 and was honored with the presidency in 1974. In addition, he was
a member of the Wilson International Club, the Western Orthopaedic Society,
and the Central Orthopaedic Society. He was also a member of several
international societies, including the International Orthopaedic Society and
the International Society of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology (SICOT), and
was a corresponding member of the New Zealand Orthopaedic Association. Paul
was a member of many honorary societies, including Sigma Xi, Alpha Omega
Alpha, and The Paul R. Lipscomb Alumni Society, founded in 1977.
For most of his career, Paul Lipscomb practiced as an orthopaedic surgeon
with a subspecialty in surgery of the hand. From 1943 to 1969, he was a member
of the staff at the Mayo Clinic. In February 1969, he moved to Davis,
California, where he was instrumental in the founding of the Davis School of
Medicine at the University of California and became the founding Chairman and
Professor of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at that institution. After
his retirement in 1981, he joined the Woodland Clinic, where he limited his
practice to surgery of the hand and upper extremity and to consultations in
orthopaedics until 1986. For the next six years, he served as a consultant for
the Disability Evaluation Group in Sacramento.
Paul Lipscomb was the author or coauthor of 150 publications relating to
orthopaedic surgery. He served as a visiting professor throughout the world,
including Salisbury, Rhodesia; Capetown, South Africa; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil;
Tehran, Iran; Auckland, New Zealand; and Sydney and Perth, Australia.
Paul is survived by his wife, Phyllis Oesterreich Lipscomb; his two
children, Susan Lipscomb Nachbaur and Paul Rogers Lipscomb Jr., MD; and four
grandchildren. On October 2, 2004, family, colleagues, former residents, and
friends gathered to celebrate his life, at which time Paul was remembered by
family and friends for his leadership, warmth, and kindness; by his colleagues
for his renown as an orthopaedic surgeon and leader; and, perhaps most
touchingly, by his students and residents for being a trusted friend who
worried as much about their personal lives as he did about their academic
skills. Never have we known a person who was so grand, yet so giving. We mourn
the loss of a wonderful human being who leaves a lasting legacy of grateful
orthopaedic students.