Leaders in Plastic Surgery

Robert M. Oneal, MD; Lauralee A. Lutz

doi:10.3998/mpub.9470414

A-1. Visiting Plastic Surgery Professors during the Early Years of the University of Michigan Section of Plastic Surgery

1966–67: Mr. John Batstone, Oxford, England; Dr. Richard Stark, New York City; Dr. Ralph Millard, Miami; Dr. Ralph Blocksma, Grand Rapids; Drs. James Sullivan and George Baibak, Toledo; Dr. Richard Straith, Detroit; Dr. Robert Pool, Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI.

1967–68: Dr. Paul Pickering, San Diego; Dr. Ken Dorner, Kalamazoo; Dr. J. William Littler, New York City.

1968–69: Dr. Herbert Mehnert, Innsbruck, Austria; Dr. Hunter Fry, Melbourne, Australia; Dr. Herold Griffith, Northwestern University, Chicago; Dr. Tom Kendall, University of Kansas , Lawrence; Dr. C. G. Knowles, Lancaster, England.

1969–70: Mr. John Mustarde, Glasgow, Scotland. Famous oculoplastic surgeon and author of Plastic Surgery of the Orbital Region. He was visiting professor for three days, and he lectured, operated, and reviewed patients.

1970–71: Dr. M. Sasaki, Tokyo, Japan (drew the picture of L3); Dr. H. Schule, Stuttgart, Germany; Dr. Wolfgang Muhlbauer, Munich, Germany; Dr. Guellerma Raspall, Barcelona, Spain; Dr. Takehiko Ohura, Hokkaido, Japan

1971–72: These visitors were in addition to those participating in the faculty for Plastic Surgery in General Surgery Practice conference. Dr. Stuart Milton, Oxford, England; Dr. Bernard O’Brien, Melbourne, Australia; Dr. Ortiz Monasterio, Mexico City, Mexico.

1972–73: Dr. Guerro-Santos, Guadalajara, Mexico.

1973–74: The only visitors for that year were the faculty for the postgraduate course “Plastic Surgery in General Surgery Practice”: Dr. Paul Weeks, St. Louis; Dr. John Gaisford, Pittsburgh; Dr. Shattuck Hartwell, Cleveland; Dr. George Crickelair, New York City.

A-2. Plastic Surgery Residency Training in Ann Arbor/Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital (SJMH) and University of Michigan, 1958–86

Residents and Their Year of Graduation from the Program

SJMH Program

Natvig, Paul, MD	1958
Grabb, William, MD	1961
Bell, Gordon, MD	1962
Mauzy, Merritt, MD	1962
Stilwell, James, MD	1962
Alger, John, MD	1963
Au, Otto, MD	1963
Lucid, Morgan, MD	1964

University of Michigan Section of Plastic Surgery Program

Reed O. Dingman, DDS, MD, Section Head

Tipton, John, MD	1965
Davis, Don G., MD	1966
Oneal, Robert M., MD	1966
Knode, Robert, MD	1967
Russell, Jim, MD	1967
Chapple, John G., MD	1968
Constant, Errikos, MD	1968
Wilms, Fred, MD	1968
Borocz, Steve, MD	1969
Dodenhoff, Theodore, MD	1969
Ramos, Hernando, MD	1969
Seaton, Ralph, Jr., MD	1969
Glass, Leonard W., MD	1970
Hudak, Thomas, MD	1970
Kloster, Gilbert, MD	1970
Berner, Carl, MD	1971
Fairbanks, Grant, MD	1971
Geisterfer, Dirk, MD	1972
Greer, Donald, Jr., MD	1972
Wexler, Menachem, MD	1972
Cromwell, Terry A., MD	1973
Nobel, Gary, MD	1973
Thorvaldssen, Sigurdur, MD	1973
Norris, James, MD	1974
Novark, Bruce, MD, DDS	1974
O’Connor, John, MD, DDS	1974
Lawrence, Richard, MD	1975
MacCollum, Maxwell, MD	1975
Wilensky, Robert J., MD, PhD	1975
Agris, Joseph, MD, DDS	1976
Blackburn, Bill, MD	1976
Bucko, Dennis, MD	1976

William C. Grabb, MD, Section Head

Mes, Louis G. B., MD	1977
Newman, M. Haskell, MD	1977
Olesen, R. Merrel, MD	1977
Austad, Eric, MD	1978
Dempsey, Paul, MD	1978
Izenberg, Paul, MD	1978
Argenta, Lou, MD	1979
Berkowitz, R. Laurence, MD	1979
Zelnik, Jonathan, MD	1979
Chapin, Donald, MD	1980
Gunter, Jack P., MD	1980
Jones, Neil F., MD	1981
Manders, Ernest, MD	1981
Watanabe, Michael, MD	1981
Gilman, Robert H., MD, DMD	1982
Fairbanks, Grant, MD	1982
Harder, Glenn, MD	1982
Marks, Malcolm, MD	1982

Reed O. Dingman, MD, DDS, Acting Section Head

Derman, Gordon, MD	1983
Duus, Erlan, MD	1983
Friedman, Roger, MD	1984
Pollock, Richard, MD	1984
Zucker, Stephen, MD	1984

Steve Mathes, MD, Section Head

Anderson, Richard, MD	1985
Hamm, Jeffrey, MD	1985
Rohrich, Rodney J., MD	1985

Louis Argenta, MD, Section Head

Adson, Martin, MD	1986
Thornton, James, MD	1986
VanderKolk, Craig A., MD	1986
Fang, Kim, MD, DDS	1987
Iacobucci, John, MD	1987
Nguyen, Abram, MD	1987

A-3. Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) and Rotations of Its Residents in Ann Arbor

Drs. Robert Clifford and Alexander Kelly started practice at HFH in Detroit, Michigan, in 1952 and began the residency program there in 1958. Dr. Clifford was the initial chief but died soon thereafter, and Dr. Kelly became chief. Dr. Kelly remained in this position until 1981, when Dr. Don Ditmars, who had rotated in the plastic surgery program in Ann Arbor during his residency at Ford Hospital, became program director. Dr. Robert Pool, one of the early resident trainees at Ford, later started the plastic surgery residency program at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan. He innovated an important modification of the Millard unilateral cleft lip repair (previously discussed). As mentioned, he also graciously participated in the teaching program at the University of Michigan over a number of years. According to Dr. John Markley, his father, also a surgeon, knew Dr. Pool at Beaumont and told John that Dr. Pool was also a very proficient hand surgeon. He once presented John with a collection of slides of a very nicely documented series of hand dissections.

List of HFH Resident Rotators

1962: Cesar Olivas Lozoya, MD
1965: Joe Fox, MD
1966: Earl Norling, MD; Alfred Speirs, MD; and Harvey Weiss, MD
1967: Bob Woodall, MD, and Chosen Lau, MD
1969: Reza Karimipour, MD
1970: Don Ditmars, MD and John Elmquist, MD
1971: John Balfour, MD
1972: W. Peter McCabe, MD
1973: V. Sathyvy, MD
1974: Saleem Malik, MD
1975: Tom Shinabeck, MD
1976: Jorge Gomez, MD
1977: Andrew Abrams, MD

A-4. Visiting Fellows in the Plastic Surgery Program

1963: G. W. Naraywa SJMH Fellowship
1971: David Chiu-Hwa Lin from Taiwan
1973: Warwick Molteno Montague Morris from South Africa
1973: Samuel Valia
1974: Alphonse Roy from Montreal
1977: Issac Peled from Israel
1978: Khalil Abu-Dalu from Israel
1979: Hassan Badran from Egypt
1981: Paul Tomljanovich from New York City
1982: Georgio Zadini from Italy (stayed only three to four months)

A-5. Drs. Dingman (ROD), Grabb (WCG), and Oneal’s (RMO) Travel Club Members

Dr. Dingman: Drs. Joseph Murray, Peter Randall, John M. Converse, Herb Conway, “Willy White,” Ralph Millard, Frank Ashley, Paul “Pick” Pickering—met at national meetings and at other times and locations but records not obtainable.

Dr. Grabb: Drs. Jerry Bains, Jack Hoopes, Ian Jackson, Josh Jurkiewicz, J. B. Lynch (deceased), Gene Sherlock, John Simons, Jim Smith (deceased), Mel Spira, Hugh Thompson (deceased), Paul Weeks—some of the most prominent men in the field. The meetings always included wives and were held in the host’s city and were primarily scientific in content.

Dr. Oneal: Drs. Bob Knode, Lenny Glass, Carl Berner, Dave Dingman,Ted Dodenhoff—members were all, except Dave Dingman (who trained with Dr. Ray Broadbent at University of Utah), residents who trained at Michigan in my early years as assistant professor. So we were all close to the same age. All of us had successful private practices in the West and Midwest of the country. All the meetings we had were stag except for one. We always went to some interesting and exciting locale, for skiing, golf, boating, or fishing. About half the time away was spent in formal scientific meetings or informal discussions about techniques, experiences in practice, and unsolved clinical problems.

As different as the groups were, the results were similar in that there was a great deal of interesting, important, and innovative information exchanged, providing a quality of knowledge that is priceless.

Photo A5: Dr. Oneal’s travel club.

A-6. Sasaki’s Drawing of Lauralee Lutz

Photo A6: Caricature drawn on a napkin by Dr. Moto Sasaki of the Tokyo Police Department. In 1971, he was a visiting professor of plastic surgery at the University of Michigan. Lauralee was a guest at dinner at the Dingmans’ together with Dr. Sasaki. After dinner, Dr. Sasaki, also an artist, painted Lauralee’s image on a paper napkin as there was no other drawing material available.

A-7. L3’s Remarks about Sasaki’s Drawing

Photo A7: Lauralee’s remarks about Sasaki’s drawing.

A-8. Dr. Grabb’s “Ten Most Wanted” Lists

Photo A8: As Dr. Grabb kindly stated, these are “lists for the residents of articles they may have missed.” The first list appeared in August 1973, followed by a second one in November. We all appreciated his persistent and helpful efforts to keep us informed.

Photo A8: (Continued)

A-9. Two Letters Regarding Changes in ROD Society

Photo A9: The first letter is from March 23, 1981, from Dr. Dingman to Dr. Grabb, asking him to consider facilitating some changes to the ROD Society to promote teaching, research, and knowledge dissemination. The second is from Dr. Grabb to Lenny Glass (resident, 1968–70), asking Glass to head a committee to spell out the process of making these changes.

Photo A9: (Continued)

A-10. Eulogy for Dr. William C. Grabb by Dr. Oneal

Photo A10: The eulogy I gave at Bill Grabb’s memorial service in 1982 at the First Presbyterian Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

A-11. Memorial Remarks from the Final Group of Residents Who Trained under Dr. Grabb

Photo A11: The memorial remarks were later published in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal and accompanied the eulogy for Dr. Grabb by Dr. Dingman that has been quoted in the main text.

A-12. The Cover of the Book A Message to Garcia

Photo A12: The book tells the story of a young lieutenant in the US Army, Andrew Rowan, during the Spanish-American War. He was sent on a mission to find the leader of the Cuban revolution and deliver a message from President McKinley. He landed alone and in secret in Cuba. Under harsh and dangerous circumstances, he successfully delivered the important message to General Garcia, who was in charge of the Revolutionary forces. Bill Grabb deeply respected the courage and spirit in “delivering the message” and “finishing the job.”[1]

A-13. Letter from Lauralee Lutz to Dr. Dingman

Photo A13: Letter from Lauralee to Dr. Dingman expressing her gratitude and her unqualified support for him after he assumed the leadership of the Section of Plastic Surgery following Dr. Grabb’s death.

A-14. Quotes from William Osler

Photo A14: Quotes that Dr. Dingman proposed be framed and hung in the Reed O. Dingman Library on the sixth floor of the outpatient building at the university hospital. Also included were additional quotations from Milton Adams, Cicero, Samuel Butler, Longfellow, and Donne, and one additional quote from Dr. Grabb.

Photo A14: (Continued)

A-15. A Copy of Dr. Dingman’s Motto, Quotations, and Advice to Residents

Photo A15. A copy of Dr. Dingman’s motto, two favorite quotations, one by Osler mentioned in A-14 and the other by Henry Adams, who was a historian and a great grandson to President John Adams and grandson of President John Quincy Adams. Also included is Dr. Dingman’s advice to residents as remembered by Lauralee. In addition is a mention as to what he felt was his greatest honor and a statement as to how proud he was of his trainees.

Photo A15. (Continued)

A-16. Gillies’s Painting

Photo A16: The painting, “The Great Rift,” by Sir Harold Gillies, depicts “rift” or separation in Iceland between the American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It is also the geographic location of several historical events in Iceland. The fascinating journey of this painting was related to me by Sigurdur (Siggi) Thorvaldsson (resident, 1971–73). Siggi first saw the painting hanging in Dr. Dingman’s private office when he arrived for a resident interview in 1969. Apparently, Dr. Ralph Millard had received the painting as a gift from Gillies following the collaboration on the book, Principles and Art of Plastic Surgery. At a later date, Millard gave it to his close friend Reed O. Dingman. Following Dr. Dingman’s death in 1985, the painting came to the possession of his son David. He subsequently sent it to Siggi who now has it hanging in his home in Reykjavik, Iceland. This saga was published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery.[2]