Ken McKee died on July 18, 1991, at the age of 85. He was survived by his wife Dan and four children.
Dr. McKeever enjoyed hunting and fishing, and he was always delighted to be at his ranch.
McKeever was one of the founders of the Asso- ciation of Bone and Joint Surgeons and became its third president. He was also a member and active participant in many orthopedic organiza- tions and on local hospital boards and staffs.
On a rainy evening, October 13, 1959, when driving someone else’s car, he ran out of gas:
while filling the tank, he was struck by another car and killed.
228 Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Duncan Clark McKEEVER
1905–1959
Duncan Clark McKeever was born on September 13, 1905, in Valley Falls, Kansas. After attending local schools, he graduated from the University of Kansas Medical School in 1929. As a naval reservist, he spent the next 4 years in naval train- ing centers, followed by a residency in pathology at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City. While there, he fell under the influence of Drs. Frank Dickson and Rex Divley and became interested in ortho- pedics. After 3 years of association with them, he moved to Houston in 1939 to open a private prac- tice. From 1941 to 1945, during World War II, he was back in the navy as chief of several hospitals.
After the war, he returned to his private practice.
McKeever’s knowledge of engineering princi- ples led to his research interest in stress analysis as it applied to operative procedures on bones. His advanced ideas in orthopedic surgery led him to develop original procedures, and his exacting attention to details helped make them successful.
His success led to additional innovative proce- dures, which included prostheses of the hip, patella, and tibial plateau.
His continuing studies kept him in demand as a teacher. Frequent visits from his many friends included those from Latin American countries.
Harrison L. McLAUGHLIN
1906–1970
Harrison L. McLaughlin was born in Cumber- land, Ontario, Canada, where his father was a general practitioner. He was educated in Ottawa, receiving his medical degree from Queen’s Uni- versity Medical College in 1933. Twenty-eight years after his graduation he returned to give the Commencement Address and receive an honorary LLD degree from his alma mater. After interning in the Ottawa Civic Hospital he moved to New York for further training.
He became a resident on the fracture service of the Presbyterian Hospital directed by William Darrach and Clay Ray Murray. After finishing his residency he stayed on the faculty, becoming chief of the fracture service after the death of Clay Ray Murray, and clinical professor of orthopedic surgery, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. He played an important role
as chairman of the trauma committee of the American College of Surgeons (1959–1964) and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, of which he became president in 1961.
Although technically he had not been trained as an orthopedic surgeon, his work in the areas of fractures and trauma was recognized by his election as an honorary fellow of the American Orthopedic Association. In 1964 he was presented with the Surgeon’s Award for Distinguished Service to Safety by the National Safety Council, which carried the following citation.
An expert surgeon respected by his colleagues, a teacher revered by his students, and a gentleman loved by all who knew him.
The management of shoulder problems was a major interest of Dr. McLaughlin and he wrote and lectured on the subject extensively.
McMurray’s clinical appointments at the David Lewis Northern Hospital, Royal Liverpool Children’s Hospital and Ministry of Pensions Hospital were coupled with university teaching appointments, first as lecturer and then, in suc- cession to Robert Jones, as director of orthopedic studies. When a chair was established in 1938, he became Liverpool’s first professor of orthopedics, and after upholding the traditions of Hugh Owen Thomas for a quarter of a century, he was made emeritus professor in 1948. He was honored by the presidencies of the British Orthopedic Asso- ciation and the Liverpool Medical Institution, and was president-elect of the British Medical Association.
He was essentially a good companion. Whether in the operating theater, where none was immune from his wit, on the golf links, where he sank ridiculously long putts without appearing to look at the ball, at home playing cards, where he always seemed to win, or at a fair throwing at coconuts and smashing a whole stand of crockery for an outlay of half a crown, he was great fun.
When doing nothing he did it thoroughly, and to see him sitting in the sun at his beloved Ystrad
“cottage,” gazing at the Denbighshire hills, was an education in relaxation. His kindness was warmed with an emotion that he himself would have denied. For 6 years after the loss of his first wife he was a very lonely man; but then the wound healed and after marrying again he enjoyed life more and more.
In McMurray was exemplified British reluc- tance to commit clinical observation to writing until confirmed after many years. His writings were therefore few, but they were important.
Some may still find difficulty in eliciting his sign for posterior horn tears of the meniscus, and others may wonder why oblique displacement osteotomy avails in the treatment of osteoarthri- tis of the hip, but none may discount his conclu- sions, which were based so firmly on long observation.
His dexterity as an operator is almost leg- endary. Many have seen him remove a meniscus with the whole of its posterior horn in less than 5 minutes, and recent American visitors spoke of the fleetness of foot that was demanded of assis- tants chasing round the operating table when a hip joint was disarticulated in little more than 10 minutes. But it was the consummate skill and artistry of his technique that was even more impressive than the speed of it; the speed was indeed “an achievement and not an aim.”
229
Who’s Who in Orthopedics
Thomas Porter McMURRAY
1888–1949
Born in Belfast, McMurray graduated in medicine at Queen’s University in 1910 and the next year went to Liverpool as house surgeon to Sir Robert Jones. In 1914, after serving for a short time in France as captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he was recalled to the Alder Hey Military Orthopedic Hospital in Liverpool where many English, Canadian and American surgeons were trained by Robert Jones and worked with him.
