Who’s Who in Orthopedics Chicago Clinics in 1954–1955. Over the years, he
has been a visiting professor at the University of Oregon Medical School, the University of South- ern California at Los Angeles, and Rush Medical College, The Rush Presbyterian–St. Luke’s Hos- pital, Chicago.
Dr. Cloward was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgeons (1941). He was a member of professional soci- eties the world over. He was an honorary member of the Asian–Australasian Society of Neurologi- cal Surgeons and served as guest lecturer at the recent Sixth Congress in Hong Kong. Dr.
Cloward had published 83 original articles in national and international medical journals on neurosurgical subjects and was the author of numerous monographs. He had also made three documentary surgical movies, filmed by the famous Hollywood surgical motion-picture pho- tographer Billy Burke, on the subjects of lumbar vertebral body fusion, anterior cervical fusion, and anterior cervical cordotomy.
Dr. Cloward was a 32nd Degree Mason, a member of the Mormon Church, was a playing member of the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra (1926–1928), and for 1 year (1927) was a member of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel Band in Honolulu.
He is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and the Sons of Utah Pioneers.
Behind every great man, there is always a strong influencing woman. In Ralph’s case, he was for- tunate enough to have married Florence Bauer, a charming and gracious lady who presided over many beautiful receptions in their beachfront estate at the tip of Diamond Head.
He died in November 2000 at the age of 92.
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John Robert COBB
1903–1967
John Robert Cobb was born in 1903 and raised
in Brooklyn. He had a long American heritage,
one of his ancestors having come over on the
Mayflower. His father believed in discipline along
with study and consequently sent him to the
Stanton Military Academy in Virginia. He began
his adult life without any clear conviction of his
future interest or line of work. His father insisted
upon a college education, but was unable to bear
the full cost of his support, so that he had to work
in the summers to accumulate enough money to
see him through the ensuing year. He went to sea
at the age of 16 on a merchant steamer and spent
a summer cruising in the Gulf of Mexico. Here
he encountered a hurricane and this experience
remained vividly in his memory. He entered
Brown University, where he majored in English
literature and graduated with the degree of BA in
1925. He was on the swimming team and also on
the wrestling team and he won his letter in cross-
country running. His skill in swimming stood him
in good stead, for he spent nine summers working
as a lifeguard in the Rockaway Beach area and
in this way earned enough each year to pay his
college expenses. In his senior year he became
converted to the idea of a medical career and had
to rearrange his educational program because he
had not enough science for acceptance in medical
school. He made good this deficit by enrolling for
a year at Harvard as a postgraduate student in bio-
logical sciences, and he always maintained that
this was the best method of preparation for the
study of medicine. He was admitted to the Yale Medical School and graduated with his MD in 1930. Following this, he served a year as surgical intern and a second year as resident in orthopedic surgery at the New Haven Hospital. His strong bent for mechanics drew him toward the specialty of orthopedic surgery.
In 1934 he was appointed Gibney Orthopedic Fellow at the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled in New York by Dr. Phillip D. Wilson, who had just become Surgeon-in-Chief, transfer- ring from Boston where he had previously worked. Dr. Cobb joined a team of young ortho- pedic surgeons who had been appointed to the staff by Dr. Wilson, including T. Campbell Thompson, Dr. Ernest Myers, and, later, Dr. Mal Stevens. Dr. Robert L. Patterson, Jr., and Dr.
William Cooper joined the staff in the next few years. This was a period of change and reorgani- zation at the hospital for the Ruptured and Crip- pled, with emphasis on teaching and researching, as well as clinical care of patients.
Dr. Cobb entered with enthusiasm into these new duties and was soon given the responsibility for organizing and building up a scoliosis clinic.
He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences by Columbia University in 1936. Little was known about scoliosis or its cause and no really effective method of treatment had been devised. Just at this time, however, through the pioneer efforts of Robert Lovett and Albert Brewster, in Boston, and of Russell Hibbs and Joseph Risser, in New York, a method of treat- ment had been developed, which seemed to offer hope of correcting the deformity of the spine. This consisted of placing the patient in a hinged plaster cast and then bending the patient’s spine to correct the deformity, followed by an operation to fuse the spinal joints and prevent recurrence.
Cobb experimented with all methods of treatment but gradually became convinced that the best method of correction was the use of the turn- buckle plaster jacket combined with spine fusion.
As he gained confidence in the method, his list of operative cases grew longer and the special out- patient clinic for these patients expanded. He kept accurate records and measurements of the patients and soon became convinced that the curvatures in growing children did not always progress and that it was best to observe the patients for a period of time before deciding that plaster correction and spinal fusion should be performed. His final con- clusion was that no more than 10% of the patients required this drastic treatment.
He maintained an essentially conservative outlook, emphasizing diagnosis with respect to the type of curve and to the underlying etiology.
He advocated a period of observation to find out whether or not the curvature would increase. Only when he found out that the curve was getting worse so that there was danger of the patient becoming a human “pretzel” would he undertake correction and fusion. He did not feel that braces or exercises offered anything to his patient. He recognized that scoliosis associated with neuro- fibromatosis represented a particularly severe type that required radical treatment early. He dif- ferentiated several types of congenital deformity of the spine and also several types of paralytic scoliosis. Along with the growth and development of his hospital clinic, where he registered 4,000 and more patients over the years, his private prac- tice also grew. His colleagues looked to him for publication of results of treatment, but he was determined that he would make no premature statement and that his experience must grow until he could speak of results. He was meticulous in his operative techniques and watched over his patients as a father over his own children. He demonstrated his methods and presented his techniques most commonly at meetings of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
Young doctors came from all over the United States and also from foreign countries to learn about scoliosis from Dr. Cobb. He condensed many of the principles he followed into pithy epi- grams, which proved popular among his students.
While he became a specialist in the treatment of scoliosis, he continued with a well-rounded experience in other divisions of orthopedic practice. He was appointed orthopedic surgeon to the Seaview Hospital on Staten Island, where he benefited from a rich experience in the care of patients with tuberculosis of the bone and joints and especially of the spine. He was appointed professor of orthopedic surgery at the New York Polyclinic Medical School and Hospital and assistant visiting orthopedist at the Willard Parker Hospital. He also served as a consultant on the staff of St. Charles’ Hospital, in Port Jervis, Long Island, the Eastern New York Orthopedic Hospital School, in Schenectady, and the Veterans Administration Hospital, in Castle Point.
He was a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, member of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, of the American Medical Association, American Geriatrics Society,
66Who’s Who in Orthopedics
American Medical Writers Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges. He was elected a member of the American Orthope- dic Association and was particularly proud of his election as president of the Alumni Association of the Hospital for Special Surgery.
He was excluded from military service during World War II when his physical examination revealed hypertension unresponsive to treatment.
He suffered a stroke in 1954 and was seriously disabled for a number of months. He made a good comeback and was able to resume operating in 1956. He carried on with all activities until 1965 when he suffered another stroke. This time he was completely disabled and he never recovered.
It is easy to write about a man’s professional achievements, but much harder to present a picture of the man himself. John was a real char- acter and he took positions for or against a lot of things. When he was against, he was an unrelent- ing foe. He hated pretense and was very critical of persons who were pushing methods of treat- ment that were unsound or had not been properly tested. He would riddle such claims with devas- tating criticism. He was a good companion and full of stories, which he loved to relate. He loved the sea and ships, which symbolized to him the primitive things that had served in man’s evolu- tion. In the same way he loved carpenter’s tools and surgical instruments, of which he had great knowledge and mastery.
He married Louise Tower, of New Haven, in 1926, and they had two sons and a daughter. He took great pride in his family and most of his hap- piness revolved around them. His family owned an island in Belgrade Lake, Maine, where the different members built individual camps and thronged in the summer. Some of John’s happiest times were spent there with his family. Later he bought a forested place in Cornwall on the Hudson, to which he transferred and continued his activities previously done in Maine. He was very saving and thrifty and could never bear to throw away anything. When it became necessary for the hospital to clear away from its files an accumulation of x-ray films, including those from the scoliosis clinic, he sorted out his own films and transferred them to one of his buildings at Cornwall. It is a cause for regret that he was never able to study those films as he had hoped.
The death on March 24, 1967, of John R. Cobb, after an illness of several years, brought to an early end the career of a great orthopedic surgeon and one who had made important contributions to
the study and treatment of scoliosis or curvature of the spine.
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