University of Kansas School of Medicine - Jayhawker MD Yearbook (Kansas City, KS)

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fn Wemawm DR. EARL C. PADGETT 1893-1946

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If W' Nh .Qi V in .5 'R E xx HERTZLER CLINIC - HALSTEAD, KANSAS K' 1? vi DEAN WAHL AND DR. HERTZLER ' ..a,,,,-', ' -ms - .,f'X'Qfx PA HERTZLER

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Eff. fm! Qalum The death of Doctor Earl Calvin Padgett on December 2, l946, means the loss of one of the most orginal and dynamic surgeons in the field of plastic surgery. He had been associated with the University since 1926 and only two weeks before he succumbed to pneumonia he was host to one of the most important meetings that has been held in the hospital, the national meeting of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Society. Earl Calvin Padgett was born in Greenleaf, Kansas, luly 8, 1893. He was the son of Iohn Manson and Martha iMac Ginnisl Padgett. His early schooling was at Glas- cow, Kansas, where he distinguished himself in baseball, basketball and football. He attended the University of Kansas where he receiv- ed his Bachelor of Science degree and Washington Uni- versity Medical School. As one of a group of thirteen students taken overseas with the Washington unit form- ingtBase Hospital No. 21, he entered the army as a private and became a lieutenant upon graduating from medical school while still overseas. Having passed his examina- tions for the regular army he debated about his future course, but decided to return to Barnes Hospital where he became in succession: surgical interne, assistant resi- dent and resident. While in the University, he was affili- ated with the Alpha Tau Omega and Nu Sigma Nu Fra- ternities and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and Sigma xi. A During the latter part of his interneship he married Winona Youmans of Ossawatomie, Kansas, and they had three children, Ioyce, Patricia, and Earl Calvin, Iunior. Following the completion of hospital residency, Doctor Padgett became an assistant of Doctor Vilray Papin Blair. He never ceased being grateful for these two years with Doctor Blair and alluded to his former chief and their experiences very frequently. ' Following this association'he practiced general sur- gery in lava, South Dakota and Las Vegas, New Mexico, often with self-made equipment and under unusual cir- cumstances. When in South Dakota his urge for contact with his medical confreres compelled him to drive a dis- tance of fifty miles. Too frequently he found these men out of contact with the advancements made in medicine and he failed to find the stimulation he anticipated. With a desire to achieve recognition and enjoy the association of fellow medical men he returned to practice surgery in Kansas City. He became affiliated with the University of Kansas and served first as Instructor in Sur- gical Anatomy and Experimental Surgery and then as Assistant Professor and from 1936 on as Professor of Clinical Surgery. He was also Professor of Maxillo-facial surgery at the University of Kansas City Dental College. He was a member ofthe Providence Hospital Staff, Kan- sas City, Kansas, and of Mercy, General, St. Mary's, and the Executive Staff of St. l.uke's Hospital of Kansas City, Missouri. Despite an increasingly extensive private practice, Doctor Padgett continued to be interested in research a problems. The' problems of shock, skin grafting and heterografting he actively undertook. His awareness of the limitations of skin grafting methods for extensive skin defects caused -him to be interested in developing a new method of obtaining skin of calibrated thickness. About ten years before the formal presentation of the dermatome on December 2, 1938, at the meeting of the Western Sur- gical Association, Doctor Padgett had conceived the idea. During the interim he spent considerable time trying to get necessary mechanical assistance. He had made numerous trips to St. Louis, Missouri, and Lawrence, Kan- sas, and finally with the aid of George F. Hood of the Department of Engineering of the University of Kansas a satisfactory instrument was developed. Almost immedi- ately the usefulness of the instrument was recognized and since then has been acclaimed as revolutionary . Meanwhile, by devoting his nights and week-ends to writing, he produced many of the sixty-five articles which appeared in medical journals and he outlined the three books which he desired to write during his lifetime. The first Surgical Diseases of the Face, Mouth and laws was .published in 1938 by W. B. Saunders and the second, Skin Grafting from a Personal and Experimental Point of View was published in 1942 by C. C. Thomas. In September, 1945, the volume covering the entire field of plastic surgery was submitted to C. C. Thomas and will be published in 1947. With the determination necessary for such accomplish- ments in the field of plastic surgery and with but a single absorbing interest, Earl Padgett left for himself little leisure time. In the past few years he became interested in biography and philosphy as supplementary reading to the medical literature. His chief surgical interest lay in operating the particularly difficult case that presented a new problem or in caring for a patient who especially appealed to his sympathies. His originality, repidity, and ability to improvise constantly intrigued his assistants as well as his observers. As, a man, Earl Padgett was always extremely sensi- tive but never deliberately unkind. Critical in thought and forthright, he never forgot his early struggles for recognition and was unusually generous and honest in teaching young men and women in the field of surgery. He was quietly but actively interested in their welfare and his greatest pleasure in recent years was to stimulate and assist you surgeons to achieve for themselves a goal comparable to his own. Earl Calvin Padgett was a member of the founders group of the Americarf Board of Surgery and the Ameri- can Board of Plastic Surgery, and a fellow of the Ameri- can Medical Association, American College of Surgeons, Western Surgical Association, American Association for Surgery of Trauma and the American Surgical Associa- tion. ln his specialty field he was a member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Society. lust prior to his death he was invited to be a fellow of the American Branch of the International Society of Surgery.