Dr. George Thomas Caldwell was born on December 18, 1882 in Cable, Ohio, in Wayne Township, Champaign County, Ohio founded by Philander Cable in 1852, to William Caldwell and Agnes Allison Caldwell. He married Janet Anderson, whom he met in Chicago at U of Chicago or at Rush Medical.  They were married on September 4, 1919 in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and later had a daughter, Dr. Marian (Mrs. John T.) Ellis of Dallas. Dr. Caldwell died of coronary occlusion on January 20, 1947 in Dallas.

Medical Education & Practice
While obtaining his multiple degrees, Dr. Caldwell taught grade school, an experience that influenced how he taught his medical school classes. After graduating high school in 1900, he taught full-time before enrolling in Otterbein University in Westernville, Ohio in 1902. He stayed at Otterbein for two years and then went back to teaching. He eventually completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio in 1910 and, in the process, obtained a Life Certificate for Common School Teacher in Ohio. From 1910 to 1912, Dr. Caldwell taught science at the high school level before returning to school at Ohio State University to complete a MA degree in chemistry.

In 1919 he earned a PhD from The University of Chicago and a MD degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago. He specialized in pathology and physiology and worked predominantly with tuberculosis patients.  After graduating, Dr. Caldwell was recruited by Dr. Cary to join the faculty at Baylor University Medical School in Dallas as the first scientifically trained full-time faculty member of the medical school. His wife, Dr. Janet Caldwell, also a pathologist, assisted him in the lab, and became the director of the laboratory at Baylor University Hospital. When Baylor Medical College moved to Houston in 1943, Dr. Caldwell stayed in Dallas and served as the first chairman of the Department of Pathology at Southwestern Medical College.

Dr. Caldwell served as consulting pathologist at Bradford Memorial Hospital for babies, Parkland Hospital, and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital. He was also surgeon in the United State Public Health Service. He was certified in clinical and anatomic pathology by the American Board of Pathology and became a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists in 1927.

Among the many societies and committees on which he served, Dr. Caldwell was a member of the State Medical Association and the American Medical Association through the Dallas County Medical Society. He served as secretary of the Section on Pathology of the State Medical Association in 1928 and of the Section on Clinical Pathology in 1942. He was a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, American Society of Tropical Medicine, American Public Health Association, American College of Pathologists, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Genetic Society, American Association of University Professors, Southern Medical Association, and Dallas Southern Clinical Society. He also served on the board of the Texas division of the American Cancer Society and was chairman of the Council on Nursing Education at Baylor University School of Nursing.

Texas Society of Pathologists

Dr. Caldwell was a charter member of the TSP and served in varying capacities. Dr. Caldwell joined the TSP, known as the State Pathological Society of Texas, in 1922 and became an official member in 1926. In 1927 Dr. Caldwell was among the four members of the then dis-banned Society that signed a resolution calling for the State Medical Association of Texas to Reinstate the Section on Pathology that had been abolished in 1917. The section on pathology was authorized for the 1928 session, and Dr. Caldwell was elected secretary-treasurer.

On May 16, 1934, the Society was reorganized after a several year hiatus. Dr. Caldwell served as the secretary-treasurer.  Dr. Caldwell served as the president of the newly re-named Texas Society of Pathologists in 1939 and again in 1940. During his time as President and afterwards, Dr. Caldwell conducted the Tumor Seminar during the TSP meetings.

Upon his death on January 26, 1947, the TSP unanimously voted that an annual scientific award be designated as the George T. Caldwell, MD Award.

Notable Publication(s)
Caldwell, G. T. (1919). Chemical changes in tuberculous tissues. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 24(2), 81-113.
Caldwell, G. T., & Roberts, J. D. (1938). Rhinosporidiosis in the United States: Report of a Case Originating in Texas. Journal of the American Medical Association, 110(20), 1641-1644
Deter, R. L., Caldwell, G. T., & Folsom, A. I. (1946). A clinical and pathological study of the posterior female urethra. Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, 1(6), 907-908.
 

Dr. John Harold Childers was born in Bogota, Texas on May 21, 1923. He married Cristol Childers, and they had two children, Joan Carol Childers and Dr. John H. Childers, Jr. and one grandson.
Dr. Childers died on December 3, 1988 in Dallas.

Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Childers graduated from Paris Junior College in 1942 and received his MD degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1946, specializing in anatomic and clinical pathology. He did a rotating internship at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio. He completed his postgraduate work in pathology at Santa Rosa under Drs. John M. Moore and Sidney W. Bohls. He served in the U.S. Army at the Army and Navy General Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas and was later assigned to Berlin, Germany. After serving two years with the Army, Dr. Childers obtained the rank of Captain and left to complete his pathology training under Dr. Paul Brindley at UTMB.

He became director of surgical pathology at UTMB and John Sealy Hospital. He was also director of the Tumor Clinic. In 1960, Dr. Childers moved to Dallas to become director of the pathology department at St. Paul Hospital and clinical professor of pathology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. In 1979, he became a full-time professor at UT Southwestern and associate director of surgical pathology at Parkland Memorial Hospital. In 1988, the Resident’s Study Room at Parkland was dedicated to him.

Dr. Childers served as president of the 8th District Medical Society and president of the Texas Division of the American Cancer Society. He was an Assemblyman to the College of American Pathologists. He was also a member of the Southern Medical Association, American Society of Clinical Pathologists, Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, International Academy of Pathology, and the Texas Academy of Science.

Among Dr. Childers honors and awards, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the American Cancer Society, Texas Division and the Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumni Award from The University of Texas Medical Branch for his contributions to medicine. He received the first Paul Brindley Distinguished Professorship in 1982. In 1988 the Texas House of Representatives passed a special resolution honoring him.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Childers served as president of the TSP in 1958. During this time, the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners required that anyone doing pathology in the state of Texas must have a license. Also during this time, Congress passed Medicare as part of the Social Security Act, which would affect the practice and payment of pathologists. Doctor Childers was among the members at a meeting of the College of American Pathologists in which they addressed issues with the new Medicare law.
After serving as president of the TSP, Dr. Childers was a charter member of the Dallas Academy of Pathology, which was formed in 1967. In 1972, Dr. Childers received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award for his contributions to pathology.

Notable Publication(s)
Childers, J. H. (1959). Carcinoma of the renal cortex; pathology and prognosis. Tex State J Med, 55(2), 96-98.
Childers, J. H. (1955). Cytologic studies on pleural and peritoneal fluids. Tex State J Med, 51(10), 674-678.
Strate, S. M., Lee, E. L., & Childers, J. H. (1984). Occult papillary carcinoma of the thyroid with distant metastases. Cancer, 54(6), 1093-1100.

Background
Dr. Edward Fenton Cooke was born on August 24, 1875 in Oldham, Lancastershire, England to H.C. and Elizabeth Ann Fenton Cooke. He was the oldest of five children. The family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa in 1890 and then to Galveston, Texas in 1891. He married Pearl Florence McClusky of Galveston on June 10, 1899, and they had four children.  Dr. Cooke died on January 8, 1931 at his home in Houston after a brief illness.

Medical Education & Practice
After graduating from Ball High School, Dr. Cooke entered The University of Texas Medical School in Galveston in 1894. He graduated with his MD degree in 1897 and served most of a year-long internship at St. Mary’s Infirmary. He left with the consent of the Sisters before the year was over to pursue an opening for contract work at a sawmill in Montgomery County.

In 1900, Dr. Cooke moved to Waxahachie in Ellis County to set up practice. He was appointed chairman of the Committee on Public Health and Legislation for the county medical society, working to secure the enforcement of laws regulating medical practice. A year later he moved to Forreston, a small town nine miles south of Waxahachie. Due to the lack of work in the area, in 1907 Dr. Cooke decided to move to Houston to pursue an opportunity working exclusively in pathology.

Dr. Cooke became chairman of pathology, histology and bacteriology at the Texas Dental College. Between 1912 and 1921, he was pathologist at St. Joseph’s Infirmary, one of the oldest private hospitals in the state, and was pathologist at Methodist Hospital and Jefferson Davis Hospital in Houston. He had served as captain in the medical corps during World War I, and remained in the Medical Reserve Corps after his tour of duty. He received the rank of lieutenant colonel.

From 1912 to 1914, Dr. Cooke served as a delegate to the State Association meeting, and from 1914 to 1916, he was a member of the Council on Medical Defense. He served as secretary and later as president of the southern Texas District Medical Society and was a charter member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology. From 1908 until 1910 he was secretary of the Harris County Medical Society, and then as president in 1913. Also in 1910, he was elected president of the newly organized society of the County Secretaries of Texas.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Cooke served as the president of the TSP in 1926 and again in 1927. However, the TSP (State Pathological Society of Texas) did not meet in 1927 due to low attendance. During his time as president, the Society was dissolved to become the Section on Clinical Pathology of the State Medical Association.

Dr. Cooke was one of sixteen charter members of the TSP and helped draft the original constitution and by-laws.  He was out-spoken against advertising for medical services and worked to have the Texas Medical Association regulate clinical laboratories. He also sought to have the TMA recognize pathology as a branch of medicine, and believed that pathology should be held to the high standards as specified by the American Medical Association.

 

Background
Dr. William L. “Dub” Crofford, Jr. was born in Victoria, Texas on October 17, 1932. He met his future wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Doering at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston while he was in medical school and she was in nursing school. They were married in Kerrville, Texas on December 27, 1955 and had five children, Jennifer, Theodore, Larry, Johnathon, and Sally.

Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Crofford earned his BS degree in 1953 and graduated with his MD degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1957. He did a rotating internship at the Robert B. Green Hospital in San Antonio. He then did a pathology residency at UTMB studying under Drs. John H. Childers, Kenneth M. Earle, and Gwendolyn Crass.

During his residency, Dr. Crofford moved to Dallas with Dr. Childers, who became director of pathology at St. Paul Hospital. During his third year of residency, Dr. Crofford left to fulfill a military obligation. He was assigned to the 4th Army Medical Laboratory, a reference laboratory, at Fort Sam Houston where he worked with several prestigious military pathologists.

After his time in the service, Dr. Crofford returned to St. Paul Hospital in Dallas, where he had a lengthy career. While there, he was a member or chairman of twelve different committees, and in 1984 was president of the medical staff at St. Paul.
Dr. Crofford served in the Dallas County Medical Society in various roles, including as a member of the Board of Directors and a delegate to the Texas Medical Association. He served as the chair for the Council on Health Facilities for the TMA. Dr. Crofford was also a charter member of the Dallas Academy of Pathology, which formed on March 7, 1967.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Crofford joined the TSP in 1969, and served on several committees and offices. He was president of the TSP in 1981, during a time when there were many changes in the field of pathology, both academically and on the federal regulatory level.

In May 1982, the TSP adopted a House of Delegates policymaking structure, becoming the first state society of pathologists to do so. Dr. Crofford was one of the interim directors who established the delegate system and nominated delegates and alternative delegates.
In 1995, Dr. Crofford received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award for his contributions to pathology.

Notable Publication(s)
Moe, P. J., & Crofford, W. L. (1960). Ectopic Unilateral Multicystic Kidney in Infant: Associated Anomalies of Tracheoesophageal Fistula and Annular Pancreas. AMA journal of diseases of children, 99(1), 35-38.
Childers, J., & Crofford, W. (1963, January). A survey of thyroid glands removed post mortem from patients in a gulf coast region. In American Journal Of Clinical Pathology (Vol. 39, No. 3, p. 295). 2100 W Harrison ST, Chicago, IL 60612: AMER SOC CLIN PATHOLOGISTS.