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

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Dr. Oppenheimer was bom in Philadelphia and received his elementary training at the Edwin H. Fitler public school. Following secondary schooling at Germantown High, he matriculated at Ursinus College from which he graduated in 1927 with honors in chemistry. He then worked for a year as a control chemist with the E. I. Du Pont de Nemours Company in Philadelphia and Elizabeth, New Jersey. In 1928 Dr. Oppenheimer entered medical school, winning the faculty prize as Temple's most outstanding senior in 1932. A year of internship at Reading Hospital followed, after which he returned to Temple, starting as an instructor in the department he currently heads. It was then that Dr. Oppenheimer's career in the fields of physiological and pharmacological education and research really got underway. Attendance at the Temple University Institute of Physiology, begun in 1933, was supplemented by summers at Harvard under the direction of Dr. Walter B. Cannon during which certain properties of smooth muscle and chemical mediators were investigated. In 1938 he received Masters in Education from Temple, accompanied by the Gold Medal for the finest thesis. The years passed and Dr. Oppenheimer advanced up the ladder of faculty responsibility. This progress culminated, in 1944, in a full professorship and appointment as Head of the Department of Physiology. The summers of these later years were spent at the Mayo Clinic's Institute of Experimental Medicine in association with Dr. Frank C. Mann, where new concepts of bowel motility and liver function

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Initial impressions are often lasting ones. We of the graduating class retain, even now, an image of Morton J. Op-penheimer striding rapidly down the aisle in 316, a hospital gown flung over his ever visible undershirt, to deliver those memorable lectures in neurophysiology. We recall being introduced to the new and confusing realm of conditioning stimuli, utilization time, action potential, and chronaxie; the short, stocky figure of Dr. Oppenheimer all the while pacing back and forth restlessly from rostrum to blackboard in front of us. We were always a full page behind him and losing ground steadily, but sensed even then the remarkable couplet of unique mind and boundless drive that comprises his personality and is his trade-mark. Although introduced to him in the lecture room, we came to know him in the laboratory where he devoted as much or more of his time to our projects as did any of his assistants. Hardly a day passed that did not find him moving among us inserting a cannula, adjusting a kymograph, injecting an anesthetic, or discussing some fine point with a group of students. Dr. Oppenheimer's manner was ever friendly and informal, his words brief and to the point, his management of our learning well planned and executed. Little wonder, then, that we recall him as in charge of us yet one of us at the same time. It is with little doubt that we remember him as one of the most dynamic forces behind our progress along the often rocky road to pre-clinical knowledge. A teacher is judged, however, not only by his students but by his superiors. Dr. William N. Parkinson, Dean of our medical school, has said of Dr. Oppenheimer: Temple University is justifiably proud of Dr. Oppenheimer; proud because he is a Temple graduate, proud because he is nationally recognized in the field of medical education as an able teacher who also has great ability in the field of investigation. You are fortunate to have him as a professor and you do well in dedicating the 1956 yearbook to him. A teacher who is, in addition, an investigator is measured by his co-workers. One of these, Dr. Thomas M. Durant, Professor of Medicine stated recently, perhaps the most amazing thing about Dr. Oppenheimer is his remarkable versatility. Although fundamentally a basic science man, he has an uncanny awareness of the clinical significance of his findings and a never ending willingness to participate in their development to the clinical level. He remains, moreover, one of the most modest men I have ever known despite his great accomplishments. MORTON J. OPPENHEIMER, A.B., M.S., M.D. Professor, and head of the Deportment of Physiology 25

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were being studied. He received further recognition in 1950 when named medical honor graduate of the year by his Alma Mater. In 1934 he married Margaret B. O'Tanyi of Philadelphia. This union was blessed by the arrival of a boy, Philip, in 1938 and a girl, Margaret, born in 1940. The Oppenheimers and their children currently reside in Norristown, Pa. Despite numerous research and faculty commitments Dr. Oppenheimer has maintained active membership in the following societies and professional organizations: The American Physiological Society; Fellowship in the American Assn, for Advancement of Science; Alpha Omega Alpha; Sigma Xi (President); The Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine; The Philadelphia Physiological Society (former President); and the Phi Chi Medical Fraternity. Posterity undoubtedly will respect even more than the above achievements his contributions to scientific literature wjiich already includes authorship or co-authorship of more than thirty-eight original articles which have appeared over the years in leading scientific and medical periodicals. Moreover, the development of the electrokymograph for the study of heart border motion and the use of the image amplifier with closed c. -ait telev s i projection were developed here at Temple during Dr. Oppenheimer's tenure. This, then, to date, is the measure of a truly fine productive Man of Science. We of the class of 1956 fondly dedicate our yearbook to Morton J. Oppenheimer, Professor and Head of the Department of Physiology. 27