country for the benefit of patients in need of orthopedic surgical treatment.
He died on July 8, 2000 at the age of 84 years.
Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio, and his orthopedic training at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Children’s Hospital School. He entered private practice in Washington, DC in 1923, and became one of the outstanding surgeons of the community and soon earned a well-deserved national and international reputation. Many contributions were the result of his work, the most notable of which was his untiring interest in fractures of the neck of the femur. He was clinical professor of surgery at the George Washington Medical School, chief of the orthopedic service of the Emergency Hos- pital, and consultant to the Children’s Hospital and the Casualty Hospital.
His sterling qualifications were recognized early and he was elected a member of the American Orthopedic Association in 1930 and of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in 1934. He also served as chairman of the bone and joint section of the Southern Medical Association.
Dr. Leadbetter was a man who never shirked a responsibility. He served on the Military Com- mittee of the American Orthopedic Association and the American Academy of Orthopedic Sur- geons for many years and gave unstintingly of his time to the Office of the Surgeon General. He was appointed orthopedic consultant to the Secretary of War, and secretary to the Orthopedic Commit- tee of the National Research Council.
He was an accomplished pianist and had a fine and well-trained baritone voice. He was a linguist, and was proficient in German, Spanish, and French. Among his other hobbies were astron- omy, geology, entomology, scientific photogra- phy, anthropology, and archaeology. He gave many lectures on these subjects and compiled an illustrated lecture on “Mayan Ruins at Yucatan.”
For several years he was the guest lecturer on the outdoor program of the National Capital Parks and spoke on a wide variety of subjects, such as
“Death Valley Days,” “Bird Life” and “With the Lumber Jacks in the Maine Woods.” His interest and work in anthropology was so outstanding that several days after his demise a letter arrived, offering him a membership in the Anthropologi- cal Society at Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was a forceful speaker, and his spoken and written language were characteristic of his cultural background.
On November 11, 1945, Dr. Guy Whitman Leadbetter, President-Elect of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, died in the Emergency Hospital, Washington, DC of coro-
188Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Guy Whitman LEADBETTER
1893–1945
Born in Bangor, Maine, December 12, 1893, the son of Fred H. and Maude E. Leadbetter, Guy Leadbetter enjoyed the advantages of the whole- some and rugged life of New England. He entered Bowdoin College and was graduated with an AB degree in 1916. In his senior year he was captain of the track team, captain of the football team, established the intercollegiate record for the 16- pound hammer, which stood for many years, and was a candidate for the olympic team. He was president of his class and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society. These achievements while at college show the great physical, mental, and personal qualifications of the man. He retained his interest in his Alma Mater and was a member of the Bowdoin Alumni Council and Chairman of Bowdoin Alumni Association, Chapter of Washington, DC, and in 1942 was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.
He received his MD degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1920.
In medical school he attained a high scholastic
standing, engaged in many university and medical
school activities, and was one of the most highly
regarded students in his class. While a student,
he chose to become an orthopedic surgeon and
received his surgical training at the Lakeside
nary occlusion. He had been confined to the hos- pital only a few days and died, as he had lived, without fear, advising his friends that he had no apprehension about his health.
To his friends and associates he typified the
“indestructible man”—a person endowed with the physical, mental, and temperamental qualities, who should have lived to be a centenarian and not have passed at the age of 51, when his many ster- ling qualities were being recognized and a future still lay before him. He accomplished much and America has lost one of its most brilliant ortho- pedic surgeons.
It was very fitting that such a man should have had an ideal family life. In September 1925 he married Alice Charlotte Johnson, and he was survived by her and their two children, Guy Whitman, Jr. and Patricia Alice.
Hospital in Boston, which he served for a period of 39 years, first as a house officer and then as a surgeon and a teacher. He was known the world over not only for his discovery of the hip condi- tion known as Legg’s disease, but also for his excellent and careful work in connection with infantile paralysis. He was the representative of the Harvard Infantile Paralysis Commission at the Children’s Hospital, and his judgment in regard to operative procedure in infantile paralysis was respected by everyone.
Dr. Legg was assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Harvard Medical School and a consultant at many hospitals throughout New England. He had charge of the infantile para- lysis cases at the Lakeville State Sanatorium, Middleboro, Massachusetts, and was consultant to the State Department of Public Health. At one time Dr. Legg was chairman of the section on orthopedic surgery of the American Medical Association and, in 1933, he was vice president of the American Orthopedic Association. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Orthope- dic Surgeons and of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the New England Pediatric Society.
A good teacher and an excellent surgeon, Dr.
Legg was withal a kind, modest fellow, who never put himself forward, but when his opinion was asked he was always ready to give it, and his advice was generally very valuable. To be sure, he was conservative, but when an operative pro- cedure or a method of treatment had been proved to be satisfactory, he was anxious to adopt it.
On July 8, 1939, Dr. Arthur T. Legg died at the Harvard Club, Boston, Massachusetts, in his 66th year.
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