Temple University School of Medicine - Skull Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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BIOGRAPHY OF PROFESSOR TEMPLE FAY THERE'S A DIVINITY THAT SHAPES OUR ENDS. ROUGH-HEW THEM HOW WE WILL. Hamlet, act 5, sc. 2. CHILDHOOD is characterized by dreams, ideals and ambitions that few are privileged to realize. What could be more fantastic in the year of nineteen hundred and five, than a boy of ten resolving to become a brain surgeon! Neurosurgery at that time was in its infancy and practically unheard of as a branch of the medical sciences. Dr. W. W. Keen, of Philadelphia, only shortly before had demonstrated to the profession of America that the human brain could be operated upon with occasional assurance of success. Dr. Harvey Cushing was beginning to undertake such difficult problems in Baltimore and the young Dr. Charles H. Frazier was being trained by Dr. Keen and Dr. Charles K. Mills to solve the surgical problems of the brain at the Philadelphia General Hospital. The specialty of Neurosurgery was as yet unborn. In the summer of this particular year a boy was hurrying along a trail on a wooded island in the Northwestern part of the State of Washington. His mission was to meet the doctor who was coming by boat from Seattle to attend his sister whose leg had been severely injured the night before. It v as impossible to remove her from the summer home wilderness which his parents had chosen along the water's edge. Beside him trotted his dog and in his hand was a small rifle. Game was plentiful in those days and boy, dog and gun were inseparable companions. The doctor proved to be a young man recently returned from the large medical center of Philadelphia. The older medical men were too busy to make such a long boat trip a well trained assistant had been sent instead. After his skillful care for the patient there was time for a hunt in the woods. The doctor borrowed the gun and young Temple Fay carried his bag back to the boat landing. During the visits that followed the returning boat was frequently late and the young physician would fill the idle time by telling the boy of the medical schools in Philadelphia, the large hospitals, and one in particular where there were many patients suffering from nervous diseases and insanity. The mysteries of the brain were just beginning to become known. There was a surgeon in Philadelphia by the name of Dr. Frazier who frequently operated upon the brain had taken a tumor from the brain of a man who could not v alk or talk and the man became well. This doctor had himself 12

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I)li®a®J ff3@W 10 a master surgeon, an accurate diagnostician, an exact neurologist, an artist in the art of medicine, and what is more, a tireless teacher and a staunch friend; to one who has enthusiastically directed our footsteps and guided our hands, we most humbly dedicate this book, an inadequate expression of sincerity. THE CLASS OF 1937.

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assisted Dr. Frazier at this particular operation it was miraculous to see how quickly the patient had recovered. Such dramatic tales and vivid pictures of white-robed men and skilled surgeons were burned deeply into the boy's mind. Dreams of the future carried by an imaginative mind stirred the youthful fancy. Why couldn't he do that too when he grew up? Perhaps even the insane might be cured. Some day there would be white gowns and medicine like the doctor carried in his bag. It was all so real. Little did this doctor ever realize how much of a god he became in the boy's eyes; little did he realize how long these stories would remain vivid even to their detailed points, nor was there realization of what a lasting effect he implanted in such a fertile brain. Young Temple Fay was the eldest son of the Honourable John P. Fay and Alice Ober Fay, the third child in a family of six. He had been bom in Seattle on January 9th, 1895. His father a native of Massachusetts, and graduate of Harvard was a recognized leader in the legal profession. President of the Board of Regents of the University of Washington and a public speaker whose eloquence brought to him the title of the silvered tongue orator of the West. In an home environment rich in classic knowledge, filled with legal and educational problems, mingled with a New England background and an unexcelled master of oratory, Young Temple Fay completed the public school and Broadway High School requirements in Seattle. The sport of hunting turned to a quest for specimens. The game which fell at the feet of the excited waiting dog was quickly retrieved and over the trophy bent this lad, penknife in hand, intent on prying away bits of the skull to gain access to the brain. In his dreams he was a doctor, the smell of medicines haunted his nostrils — he was a brain surgeon. One by one, jars and bottles were filled v ith brains of small animals, birds, as well as those of fish. No books were available but there was plenty to be observed, studied and compared in these self-obtained specimens. Temple Fay entered the University of Washington which his father had long before reorganized and placed upon the standard of Eastern institutions of learning. The Gymnasium and courses of physical education which Judge Fay had sponsored twenty years before, yielded unconquered football teams under Coach Gil Dobie and throughout Temple Fay's college days his team never lost a game. The famous Conibear sent Washington crews to the Poughkeepsie regatta that won distinction for the University and its revolutionary methods of rowing. The surge forward of a great institution saw the departments of science developing rapidly and the now famous Biological Station at Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands was established at this time. Temple Fay spent his summers in research among marine forms of life in this new mecca for scientists from all over the country. A famous biologist from Chicago was studying the metabolism of oxygen on simple cells, another 23