survey of ophthalmology 59 (2014) 133
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Editorial
Bernard Becker, MD (1920e2013) Dr. Bernard Becker died at age 93 this past August. Among his many contributions to ophthalmology, he served as Consulting Editor for the Survey. He was also chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Washington University in St. Louis when I did my residency there. Born in New York City in a struggling Jewish family and able to read and do arithmetic by age 3,A he is the rare child prodigy who fulfilled every early promise. Educated on full scholarships at Princeton and Harvard Medical School, his admiration for Jonas Friedenwald as a histochemist led him somewhat accidentally into ophthalmology. At age 33, in 1953, even before officially completing his residency at Johns Hopkins, he was appointed to the chairmanship at Washington University, a position he held for 35 years. From a 21st century perspective the obstacles that he faced in creating a full-time Department of Ophthalmology seem almost incredible. By the time I began my residency in 1972, he had overcome these completely, and he quietly, but effectively, supervised an outstanding faculty, most of whom were his trainees. Parenthetically, the struggle between private practitioners and full-time faculty was still being played out at that time at Harvard. He was unquestionably the most voracious reader of the medical literature I have ever encountered. He would list your
name on the cover of a journal when he saw a paper he thought you should read, and the issue would then pass from person to person on that list. Anyone with an interest in glaucoma might find his or her mailbox filled. He knew that after my residency I was going to the National Institutes of Health to study neuromuscular disorders, and I found a copy of the Japanese Journal of Poultry Science with only my name on it calling my attention to a paper on muscular dystrophy in chickens. Few individuals have made contributions to ophthalmology on the scale of Dr. Becker’s. His influence on Washington University School of Medicine, where the main library is named after him, was just as immense.
other cited material
A. http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/oral/interviews/becker.html.
0039-6257/$ e see front matter ª 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2013.11.001
John W. Gittinger Jr., MD Editor-in-Chief Available online 16 November 2013
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/survophthal
Editorial
Bernard Becker, MD (1920e2013) Dr. Bernard Becker died at age 93 this past August. Among his many contributions to ophthalmology, he served as Consulting Editor for the Survey. He was also chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Washington University in St. Louis when I did my residency there. Born in New York City in a struggling Jewish family and able to read and do arithmetic by age 3,A he is the rare child prodigy who fulfilled every early promise. Educated on full scholarships at Princeton and Harvard Medical School, his admiration for Jonas Friedenwald as a histochemist led him somewhat accidentally into ophthalmology. At age 33, in 1953, even before officially completing his residency at Johns Hopkins, he was appointed to the chairmanship at Washington University, a position he held for 35 years. From a 21st century perspective the obstacles that he faced in creating a full-time Department of Ophthalmology seem almost incredible. By the time I began my residency in 1972, he had overcome these completely, and he quietly, but effectively, supervised an outstanding faculty, most of whom were his trainees. Parenthetically, the struggle between private practitioners and full-time faculty was still being played out at that time at Harvard. He was unquestionably the most voracious reader of the medical literature I have ever encountered. He would list your
name on the cover of a journal when he saw a paper he thought you should read, and the issue would then pass from person to person on that list. Anyone with an interest in glaucoma might find his or her mailbox filled. He knew that after my residency I was going to the National Institutes of Health to study neuromuscular disorders, and I found a copy of the Japanese Journal of Poultry Science with only my name on it calling my attention to a paper on muscular dystrophy in chickens. Few individuals have made contributions to ophthalmology on the scale of Dr. Becker’s. His influence on Washington University School of Medicine, where the main library is named after him, was just as immense.
other cited material
A. http://beckerexhibits.wustl.edu/oral/interviews/becker.html.
0039-6257/$ e see front matter ª 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.survophthal.2013.11.001
John W. Gittinger Jr., MD Editor-in-Chief Available online 16 November 2013
