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

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DEDICRTIOn Waldo 6. Flelson, B.A., HID The modern medical school with it's emphasis on the acquisition of scientific fact by the student body is not a place conducive to the formation of close student-teacher alliances. It is difficult for a professor to both give the factual subject matter of his specialty and at the same time convey to his students his ideas on things more varied and basic than that specialty; concepts in his field as 6

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WILLIAM N. PARKINSON. B.S.. M.D.. M.Sc. (Met!.). F.A.C.S.. 1.1 ..I). Dean

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an an. medicine in uil of it's aspect and indeed in the c ternal questions on the problems of life itself. We fed that our class was priyileged to have acquired its knowledge in pediatrics from a man who by combining an ability to stimulate scientific thought with a knack for personalizing” bis lectures ami ward rounds gave us a broader, keener insight into not only child medicine but into all the qualities and interests that go into the making of a true man of science. I hat is why we have taken this opportunity to devote these pages, a memento of our life at Temple, to a man who has so markedly contributed toward that lib l)r. Waldo hi. Nelson. I)r. Nelson was born in the small town of McClure. Ohio, in 1898 and owes his surnames to his grandmother, a devotee of the poet Emerson. As could well be expected, a cordial boyish dislike for so exatu a name quickly manifested itself, and the youngster lost no time in making certain that all of his six brothers, his schoolmates, and any of the younger set dial spent their leisure time in his father’s drug store used the more earthy and desirable name “Bill when addressing him. If as the Freudians are constantly telling us. the hoy is father to the man”; then we can see even this early in his life a desire for the simple everyday entities that is so evident a part of Dr. Nelson’s make np today. Like many of the members of the present graduating class. Dr. Nelson started college un- der the auspices of a government at y ar: foi after enlisting in the army at the time «»f mer-ica’s entry into the l‘ irst W orld W ar Bill Nelson was assigned to the S. . I .C. the precursor of the late A.S.T.P.. and y as sent to Whitten-herg College. It was while at college that he became friendly with several premedical students who hit by bit interested him in the field of their endeavors so that by the time of bis graduation in 1923 he was determined to make medicine bis life work. This belated but deep interest in medical science did not occupy all of young Nelsons time hoyyever: for. in addilon to being on the stalT of both school paper and annual and serving a athletic manager of the football team, it was during his college years that be met Miss Margery Harris, who became hi wife upon the completion of bis medical training. In the fall of the year of his graduation from college. I)r. Nelson entered Cincinnati Medical College. Just when pediatrics fir t claimed him is not certain but by bis senior year. y hich could be largely spent in a chosen field. Dr. Nelson ysas a familiar figure in the children • wards of the hospital. This interest was -lead-fast ami after completing his internship at Cincinnati General Hospital Dr. Nelson remained as assistant resident in Pediatrics. Following this the young physician spent the last two yeai of the “roaring twenties” as chief resident at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital. It was dur- 7