He contributed to the literature many publica- tions dealing with orthopedic problems. His medical affiliations included the American Medical Association, the Medical Society for the State of Pennsylvania, the Pittsburgh Academy of Medicine, the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, and the Clinical Orthopedic Society.
He was a founder and fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He became a member of the American Orthopedic Association in 1906, served as president during the year 1916–1917, and was always deeply interested in the work of the association.
Dr. Silver died at Orlando, Florida, March 22, 1946. His wife, Elizabeth Roadman Silver, sur- vived him.
Dr. Slocum entered the military in 1941 as a first lieutenant. His service included chief of orthopedics, Letterman and Torney Hospitals, Palm Springs, California, and chief of the ampu- tation section, Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, DC. During his military service, he became aware of the difficulties that prosthetic specialists had with the design and finding of artificial limbs.
Working with Djon Mili, he filmed sequences that showed natural human gait and gait with artificial limbs. The stop-action sequence pictures docu- mented hip, knee, ankle, and foot angles for every fraction of the human pace. The work became a part of Slocum’s Atlas of Amputations, a respected orthopedic textbook of its time.
A lieutenant colonel at the war’s end, Dr.
Slocum left military service in 1946 and returned to Eugene, Oregon, to set up a specialty orthope- dic practice. He became interested in repairing knees so that maximum activity could be pursued, whether by a professional athlete attempting to continue in competitive sport or an injured mill- worker wanting to lead a normally productive life. In 1962, Dr. Slocum developed the pes anser- inus transplant to realign the muscles and tendons for injured ligaments in order to prevent rotatory instability.
Although his earlier work had centered on injuries to the shoulder, arm and hand, Dr.
Slocum’s surgical labors began to center on the knee. He collaborated with Bill Bowerman, the nationally recognized track coach at the Univer- sity of Oregon, in producing a study, “Biome- chanics of Running,” which had great impact on the coaching of track-and-field athletes. Concur- rently, his growing prominence in athletic medi- cine slowly changed the nature of his clientele and his work. Dr. Slocum became the master of gait and kinesiology, and gave annual symposia on the biomechanics of running. He lectured, wrote innumerable articles for medical journals, and traveled all over the world sharing knowledge of the knee. He chaired many committees; served as chief of orthopedic surgery at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eugene, Oregon, and professor of orthopedics at the University of Oregon Medical School, Portland; and was a member of the American College of Surgeons, State Advisory Committee. In 1975 he was named “Mr. Sports Medicine” by the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine.
While fame and success were constantly at his doorstep, Dr. Slocum never lost his genuine love of and contact with people. The Register Guard 307
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Donald Barclay SLOCUM
1911–1983
Donald Barclay Slocum was born in Portland, Oregon, on April 11, 1911. He was awarded a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University, a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Oregon Medical School in 1935, and a Master’s degree from the University of Tennessee in 1939.
He did postgraduate work in orthopedic surgery at the University of Iowa and was a fellow in orthopedic surgery at the Willis C. Campbell Clinic, Memphis, Tennessee.
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
noted in describing Dr. Slocum, that he approached “the whole business of the knee and its intricacies with a healthy measure of scholarly curiosity, a bit of respect for the Original Designer, and enough self-effacing wit to keep his considerable technical accomplishments in perspective.”
Not all of Dr. Slocum’s contributions were related to surgery, however. He was well aware of social problems, and was always looking for ways to improve the human condition. In 1947, he was instrumental in establishing the Easter Seal School and Treatment Center in Eugene. For years he sponsored scholarships for students in sports at the University of Oregon and served on the Board of the University of Oregon Develop- ment Fund. An avid historian, he lectured on sub- jects relating to the pioneers, the growth of the colonies, and the courage of our forebears.
Dr. Slocum’s desire for learning was unquench- able. Even on his death bed, ill with leukemia, he read computer books and magazines, trying to comprehend another world. Dr. Stan James described the essence of Donald Slocum’s thirst for knowledge: “If Don was set down in the middle of the Sahara Desert, he would have learned all that there was to learn about each grain of sand there.”
On July 3, 1983, the world lost one of its great- est innovators, master surgeons, and teachers.
Recognized by orthopedists and sports-medicine specialists as a giant in his field, Dr. Slocum made innumerable contributions to his associates, as well as to the multitude of patients under his sur- gical care. Guided by a strong desire to learn and contribute, Dr. Slocum changed the direction of orthopedic surgery and made an incredible dif- ference to the world at large.
308
Ian Scott SMILLIE
1907–1992
Ian Smillie’s career was guided by the pursuit of excellence and a single-minded intent to establish orthopedic surgery as a specialty in its own right.
He became a leading world authority on the knee.
He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1931 and obtained the Fellowships of the Royal Colleges of Edinburgh and of Glasgow in 1935.
After 3 years as a clinical assistant to Sir Walter Mercer, he was placed in charge of the war-time Emergency Medical Service Orthopedic Hospital at Larbert in 1939. There he developed a team of expert surgeons, nurses and therapists and an orthopedic workshop, which eventually spawned virtually all the senior orthotists in Scotland.
When he left this hospital, which housed 500 patients, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
In 1948 he became surgeon-in-charge of the orthopedic service of the Eastern Region of Scot- land and also gained the Gold Medal at the ChM examination of the University of Edinburgh. He was a Nuffield Traveling Fellow to the United States of America and Canada in the same year.
At the Bridge of Earn Hospital, he further devel- oped his team concept and his ideas on the con- tinuum of rehabilitation—each trainee spent one element of his rotation in the hospital’s rehabili- tation unit. He also established orthopedic clinics in Dundee, not with the entire approval of some of the general surgeons.
In 1967, he was appointed professor of ortho- pedics in a newly established chair of the Uni-
