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

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Richard A. Kern, A.B., M.D., LL.D., Sc.D., F.A.C.P

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Dedication A teacher who can arouse a feeling for a single good action, for one single good poem, accomplishes more than he who fills rows on rows of natural objects, classified with name and form. Johann Wolfgang Von Gothe Elective Affinities. Book II, Chap. 7 In the black days of 1941 and 1942 while the United States reeled before the Japanese war machine in the Pacific, many American men and women were donning uniforms for the first time in preparation for the long road back from the brink of defeat. Others, some of whom had prophesied the Japanese treachery, were being activated again, this time for the second World War within twenty-five years. One of these men, Captain Richard A. Kern, U.S.N.R., was assigned to the U.S.S. Hospital Ship Solace. In a way history was repeating itself. Captain Kern had served on the Solace in World War I as a member of the Atlantic Fleet. But now the deceivingly tranquil South Pacific had been substituted for the cold North Atlantic as his theater of operations. In 1940, when Britain stood alone, the then Commander Kern became chairman of a committee to investigate the expandability of medical school professors in the

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reserve. This was five years after he organized Navy Specialist Unit 31, the first complete unit ready for hospital ship duty. His farsightedness, initiative, and ability soon earned for him the job of medical consultant to a pretty fair sailor by the name of William Bull Halsey, commander of the South Pacific Theater. As medical trouble-shooter and coordinator, Captain Kern was also called upon to brief many invasion groups, among them the Second and Third Marine divisions which hit the beaches at Tarawa and Bougainville, respectively. In the spring of 1944, Captain Kern was appointed Chief of Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Naval Hospital, Philadelphia. The appointment was almost coincident with a subsequent promotion to the rank of Commodore. On his return to the United States, Dr. Kern disembarked at Pensacola, Florida. There he was presented with the keys to the city by Admiral C. P. Mason, Mayor of Pensacola, and one-time skipper of the ill-fated carrier, Hornet. The novelty of this story goes back to Dr. Kern's boyhood. Born in Columbia, Pa. on February 19, 1891, the son of a minister, he wrestled with a conflict as a youth: whether to become a career navy man or a physician. His decision was made when he declined an acceptance at Annapolis in favor of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. The man who filled his Annapolis vacancy was Admiral Mason. Dr. Kern has reconciled his ambitions well, however. During his duty in the Naval Reserve he has given willingly of his time and medical skills. In addition to the many personal gratifications that he has gained from this work, there are the additional rewards of a rank of Rear Admiral, and citations from Admiral Halsey and the late Secretary of the Navy and Defense, James Forrestal. Still active in military affairs, Dr. Kern maintains his Naval Reserve status, and in addition serves as medical consultant to the Surgeon General. He was an advisor on the Berlin Airlift, as well as matters in Africa, the Caribbean and Far East. A tall man, neither stocky nor slim, his naturalness of manner and presentation enriches him as a teacher. His facility for communicating facts, ideas and experiences transform his lectures into something special. The tint of personal experience helps to drive home the importance of tropical diseases. Dr. Kern also has the gift to convey graphic representations of the distant lands that he has visited. Which of his students has not envisioned the happy isles of Robert Louis Stevenson, or heard Kipling's paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay ? Dr. Kern's years of medical teaching only enforce what already has been said. Starting as an instructor, A new accomplishment