Ralph B. CLOWARD1908–2000

on him a personal chair of orthopedic surgery and made him an emeritus professor in 1972.

Pasco was respected by all those with whom he worked, particularly by the men he trained, for his enthusiasm for the subject, coupled with his per- sonal interest in them. He was a lover of classi- cal music, especially opera, and he was no mean musicologist, being proficient with clarinet and piano. His knowledge of English and French lit- erature was wide and throughout his life he dis- played a great interest in all forms of art. A connoisseur of wine and food, he loved convers- ing with his friends about books, music and art.

In 1966 he married Sue Jones, the theater superintendent at Pinderfields Hospital, and this led to great happiness—probably the happiest years of his life. J.M.P. Clark died at Harrogate on February 16, 1982.

1934. He served his internship at St. Luke’s Hos- pital, Chicago (1934–1935), then completed his neurology and neurosurgical training at Billings Memorial Hospital and the University of Chicago Clinics from 1935 to 1938 under Prof. Percival Bailey.

Dr. Cloward started his practice of neurology and neurosurgery in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, in 1938. He was in Honolulu when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and was assigned by the War Department to remain in Honolulu for the duration of the war to treat local injuries and battle casualties trans- ported from the war front. For his services to civilians and the military during the war, he received a commendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt “over and above the call of duty,” the civilian equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Dr. Cloward’s contributions to neurosurgery are numerous. His main interest, however, rests in the area of the spine. The posterior lumbar inter- body fusion (PLIF) was first performed in 1943 and in 1945 was reported to the Hawaii Territor- ial Medical Association. His first paper on the technique of the operation was published in the

the Journal of Neurosurgery, Dr. Cloward pub- lished his original operation for treatment of cervical disc disease by anterior discectomy and interbody fusion. This operation is now used by most neurosurgeons throughout the world.

Dr. Cloward was an exceptionally skilled and innovative technical neurosurgeon and rightfully deserves the title “Michelangelo of Neuro- surgery.” Since his original description of PLIF in 1945, few, if any, of his contemporaries have been able to duplicate his results. The very fact that he could perform this difficult procedure in the early 1940s bespeaks his technical genius. By the same token, because of his technical superiority and the excellent results he obtained with his PLIF procedure, only a few surgeons were willing to attempt the operation.

Dr. Cloward was also a genius in devising instrumentation and has had over 100 of his instruments cataloged by Codman and Shurtleff.

Dr. Cloward’s academic associations are exten- sive. He was clinical professor of neurosurgery, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu. He was visiting professor and head of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Chicago Medical School, Albert M. Billing Hospital, and the University of

Who’s Who in Orthopedics

Ralph B. CLOWARD

1908–2000

Ralph B. Cloward was born September 24, 1908, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His parents were both descendants of original Mormon pioneers. He received his primary school education in Utah, did his undergraduate studies at the Universities of Hawaii and Utah, and graduated with a BS degree from the University of Utah in 1930.

The first 2 years of his medical education were

spent at the University of Utah. He completed his

medical education at Rush Medical College (Uni-

versity of Chicago), graduating in the class of

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.

65

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