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

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ing this term that Dr. Nelson married: and followin'!: his residency, the young couple went on a six month European honeymoon during which in addition to the usual tourist haunts, nany of the famous continental Pediatric clinics were visited. In 1930 Dr. Nelson returned to Cincinnati Medical College as an instructor in Pediatrics. The following ten years were the “golden age of Pediatrics at Cincinnati. The department was expanding and under the leadership of Dr. Graeme Mitchell it became one of the largest pediatric centers in the world. There were the medically famous on the faculty and they had a great influence on Dr. Nelson’s life. These were the “growing up years of his professional existance. During the first part of this decade Dr. Nelson was particularly concerned with two specific diseases, tuberculosis and diabetes. Large scale clinical studies were undertaken and research work in the value of tuberculin and on the subjects of carbohydrate and protein metabolism was performed in the hope of increasing medical knowledge in two diseases especially dreaded in pediatrics. Later, as medical director of die childrens convalescent home, Dr. Nelson did a great deal of study and work in the important hut neglected field of convalescent care. In 1940. Dr. Nelson was called to Temple as professor and head of the department of pediatrics. At present the Nelson's reside in their comfortable home in Narberth. They have three children. June. 17: Ann. 15; and Billy. 11. Since many of our pediatric lectures were pointed up by stories concerning his family. Di. Nelson's pride in and concern for his wife anti children was very apparent to us. The Doctor's main hobby is the Mitchell-Nelson textbook, which has recently been translated into Spanish and Portugese, and which in the English version is used extensively in this and many Kuropean countries. A variety of interests and responsibilities in sundry fields within his specialty has never re placed Dr. Nelson’s interest in teaching, lie believes that education is a self-attained affair gathered from many sources. Thus, the purpose of any school should he to supply the student with facts; hut even more important to develop in the student a method of deductive reasoning. Consequently, Dr. Nelson is a firm proponent of the conference method of teaching which gives the individual a chance to participate. The future should not he dull for Dr. Nelson. Temple is a school still in it's youth and the pediatric department will expand with it. In addition to plans for intra-mural growth. Dr. Nelson is interested in a movement to develop for North Philadelphia more adequate pediatri: care by organizing and co-ordinating already existing facilities. Our class saw on example of this policy in the new association between the Temple Pediatric service and St. Christopher's Hospital, of which Dr. Nelson is the newly appointed medical director. It is with both gratitude and respect that we dedicate the 1948 SKI LL to Doctor E. Nelson, teacher, scientist, and friend. 8

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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

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HISTORV Of THE mEDICPL 5CHOOL The Medical Department « f Temple College was born shortly after the turn of the century. It was in 1901 that evening classes in medicine were inaugurated in the main college building at Broad and Berks Streets and clinics conducted at the Samaritan Hospital (now the Temple ('diversity Hospital) at Broad and Ontario Streets. The course of study was spread out over five years so that, with an additional seven hundred hours of daytime clinics and classes, the students of the new founded department could fulfill state requirements for a degree in medicine without sacrificing the daytime jobs l which they supported themselves and their families. This program of making available to any industrious voung man or woman the opportunity of a medical education was. of course, a part of Dr. Con well’s plan to provide the facilities for higher education in any branch of learning to as large a portion of the population as possible. I nfortunately. the idea of teaching the art of medicine at night met with considerable opposition. Some fell, with reasonable justification, that the subject matter was too important and difficult to he properly studied by anyone not fully devoted to that task. Others opposed die school merely because it was new. admitted woman and dared to introduce innovations in educational and medical methods. Consequently the college authorities started full schedule day classes in 1907. the same year that Temple became a I nivesrit). It was also in 1907 that Garrctson Hospital was annexed to the I diversity, to provide more clinical material for the growing student body : although this hospital became outmoded and was converted into basic science laboratories in 9