Garza / Gilmer / Goforth / Grossman




Marcelo Garza, MD (1977)


Background
Dr. Marcelo “Marc” Garza was born in Brownsville, Texas in 1924 to Marcelo and Virginia Garza. He had two brothers and three sisters and graduated from Brownsville High School. He met his wife, Bettie Celaya while at The University of Texas in Austin. They were married in 1955.

Dr. Garza died on December 30, 1993 in Dallas, Texas.

Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Garza served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II as a flight engineer from 1942 until 1945. After his time in the Air Force, he returned to school and obtained his MD degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1955. He did an internship in Colorado and returned to UTMB to complete his pathology residency. He became board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology in 1960.

He began practicing pathology at Dow Hospital in Freeport. Then, in 1961, he joined Dr. A.B. Cairns in Dallas. They formed the Cairns-Nateboom-Garza Clinical Laboratory, which served the Methodist Hospital. Dr. Garza continued to work with the Methodist Hospital until his retirement in 1980.

Dr. Garza was a member of the Dallas County Medical Society, the Texas Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the College of American Pathologists, Phi Rho Sigma
Fraternity, and the Ex-Student Association of The University of Texas, for which he served as president of the Dallas chapter. He was also a charter member of the Dallas Academy of Pathology which formed in 1967.

Dr. Garza served as a mentor and provided scholarships to several underprivileged minority students.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Garza served as president of the TSP in 1977 during a time when pathology was spreading throughout Texas. Texas A&M College of Medicine enrolled its first class in September, 1977, and the medical examiner system was being adopted in several counties in Texas.

Notable Publication(s)
Brownsville Herald Obituaries: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_17202af4-946a-5a38-a3de-1d0262dde93f.html
Baker, Marilyn Miller (1996) The History of Pathology in Texas. Texas Medical History E-Books. Book 11. http://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/ebooks/11



Peachy R. Gilmer, Jr., MD (1987)


Background
Peachy Ridgway “Ridg” Gilmer, Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana on July 26, 1932. His father, P.R. Gilmer, Sr., was a chest surgeon and pulmonary specialist who practiced in Shreveport. His mother, Julia Morrow Church Gilmer, was from McKinney, Texas.

Dr. Gilmer married Irma Marie Kenney in 1955 in New Orleans. They had five children, William Somerville in 1956, Leo Kenney in 1958, Elizabeth Jaubert in1962, Dorothy Marie in 1967, and Julia Church in 1968. Kenney died on January 4, 1965. Irma Gilmer died in August, 1998.

Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Gilmer graduated high school in 1950 from Sewanee Military Academy in Sewanee, Tennessee. He attended Centenary College in Shreveport from 1950 to 1952 and completed his undergraduate studies at Tulane University in New Orleans in 1953. He received his MD degree from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1957.

In 1957, Dr. Gilmer did a rotating internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, and in 1958 was a resident in general surgery at Charity Hospital on the Tulane service.  From 1959 to 1961, Dr. Gilmer was a fellow in pathologic anatomy at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans. He then spent a year as a resident in clinical pathology at Charity Hospital on the Louisiana State University service, after which he was certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic and clinical pathology.
From 1964 to 1971, Dr. Gilmer had a private pathology practice in Shreveport. During this time, he served as a consultant to Panola General Hospital in Carthage, Texas, and to the Willis-Knighton Memorial Hospital and the Confederate Memorial Medical Center in Shreveport. He was a clinical assistant professor of pathology at Louisiana State University School of Medicine at Shreveport from 1964 to 1971.

In 1971, Dr. Gilmer moved to Galveston to become assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at The University of Texas Medical Branch. He eventually became full professor in 1981. He served on several committees including the Curriculum Committee, the Continuing Education Committee, and the Promotion and Tenure Committee. He was active in the teaching and resident programs for pathology.

After spending a year in Washington, D.C. as a project director for the Association of American Medical Colleges, Dr. Gilmer returned to Houston to The University of Texas Houston Health Science Center and serve as chief of pathology at the LBJ General Hospital until his retirement in 1995.

Dr. Gilmer worked extensively with the College of American Pathologists (CAP), and served as the state commissioner of Texas from 1980 until 1984. He was the editor of Summing Up, a publication of the Survey Committee of the CAP. Since 1990, Dr. Gilmer has edited Laboratory Accreditation News, a quarterly newsletter of the Commission on Laboratory Accreditation appearing in CAP Today.

Dr. Gilmer has been a member of the American Medical Association, the Texas Medical Association, the Galveston County Medical Society, the Houston Society to Clinical Pathologists, the National Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists, the American Society of Medical Technologists, and the Texas Society of Medical Technologists. He was elected to membership in the American Society of Hematology in 1978. He chaired the TMA Council on Annual Sessions until 2001. He has most recently served as an alternate delegate to the TMA for the Harris County Medical Society and Houston Academy of Medicine.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Gilmer was elected as a TSP alternate delegate to the House of Delegates of the College of American Pathologists from 1976 to 1983 and delegate from 1983 until 1985. He served on the Quality Control Committee from 1975 to 1977 and on the Medical Technology Committee in 1979. He was appointed chairman of the Medical Technology Council in 1984, chairman of the Credentials Committee in 1984, and to the American Society of Clinical Pathology Council in 1984.

Dr. Gilmer served as president of the TSP in 1987. He received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award in 1985 for his contributions to pathology.

Notable Publication(s)
Aside from his editorial tasks, Dr. Gilmer has also authored twenty papers dealing with hematology and is the author or co-author of thirteen pamphlets and books.
Bessman, J. D., Gilmer Jr, P. R., & Gardner, F. H. (1983). Improved classification of anemias by MCV and RDW. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 80(3), 322-326.
Bessman, J. D., Williams, L. J., & Gilmer Jr, P. R. (1982). Platelet size in health and hematologic disease. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 78(2), 150-153.
Bessman, J. D., Williams, L. J., & Gilmer Jr, P. R. (1981). Mean platelet volume. The inverse relation of platelet size and count in normal subjects, and an artifact of other particles. American Journal of Clinical Pathology, 76(3), 289-293.
 



John L. Goforth, MD (1931, 1943)


Background
Dr. John Lawrence Goforth was born on June 24, 1897 in Beeville, Texas. He did his early education in Comfort and San Antonio, Texas, attending the Marshall School for Boys. He married Patsy Louise and they had one daughter, Diane.

Dr. Goforth died on September 5, 1985 in Dallas, Texas.

Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Goforth received his AB degree, with honors, in 1918 from The University of Texas in Austin. During World War I, he was trained at Yale Army Laboratory Training School and served for eleven months as a bacteriologist with the American Expeditionary Forces in France and Germany.

After serving in the military, he went back to medical school and earned his MD degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1923. He did his internship at Johns Hopkins, and completed his pathology residencies at Philadelphia General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1926, Dr. Goforth returned to Texas and became the first full-time pathologist at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas. He established St. Paul’s Medical Technology School and served as president of St. Paul’s medical staff in 1954. In 1957, he served as chairman of the professional division of the fundraising committee for the new St. Paul Hospital. Dr. Goforth served as director of St. Paul Hospital, later St. Paul Medical Center, for thirty-five years and was a consultant from 1961 to 1976.

Aside from his work with St. Paul, Dr. Goforth had his own private laboratory, J. L. Goforth Laboratories, which served Dallas and East Texas. He also served as the pathologist at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, Methodist Medical Center, and Medical Arts Hospital. Additionally, he served on the Dallas Health Advisory Board for seventeen years.

Dr. Goforth was active in organized medicine on both the local and international level. He received the Joint Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Clinical Pathology and the College of American Pathologists in 1971. He served as chairman of the board of Certified Laboratory Assistants and was a driving force in the development of the national program. He was also a charter member of the Dallas Academy of Pathology that formed in 1967.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Goforth is one of the charter members of the TSP who helped re-organize the group and write the by-laws at the May 16, 1934 meeting. He served as president of the TSP in 1931 and 1943. He was also the first member of the TSP to serve as president of the American Society of Clinical Pathology. During his time with the TSP, Dr. Goforth helped standardize university pathology programs and laboratories.

He received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award for excellence in pathology in 1957.

In 1986 Patsy was instrumental in establishing the John Lawrence and Patsy Louise Goforth Professorship in Pathology, an endowment fund at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas in honor of Dr. Goforth’s work in pathology.

Notable Publication(s)
Goforth, J. L. (1952). Squamous cell papilloma of the cervix uteri. Southern medical journal, 45(10), 921-926.
Goforth, J. L. (1927). Carcinoma developing in the parotid (Stensen’s) duct: with clinicopathologic report of a case. The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 173(5), 624-628.
Goforth, J. L. (1926). Unique heart anomaly: free fibrous cord passing through three heart chambers to the aorta. Journal of the American Medical Association, 86(21), 1612-1613.



Mervin H. Grossman, MD (1964)


Background
Dr. Grossman was born in Cuero, Texas in 1918. He married Isla, and they had two daughters, Lynn and Joan.

Dr. Grossman died on October 27, 1988 while attending the CAP/ASCP meeting in Las Vegas. He was living in Dallas, Texas.

Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Grossman received his AB degree from Erskine College in Due West, South Carolina in 1938. He received his MD degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis in 1941 and did his internship at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, Texas. He did his residencies at Jefferson Davis Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Grossman had served in the U.S. Army during World War II, which was in the midst of his residency work. After his service he returned to Texas to complete a pathology residency at Baylor College of Medicine, serving under Drs. Coulter, Wallace, and Halpert. He was certified by the American Board of Pathology in 1951. At Baylor, he served as an instructor in pathology until 1950 and as assistant professor in 1951. He moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee to become director of laboratories at Memorial Hospital, but in 1953, he moved back to Dallas to practice.

Dr. Grossman was a member of the Southern Medical Association, the American Society of Clinical Pathology, and the College of American Pathologists.

Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Grossman joined the TSP in 1954. He was an active member, serving as secretary in 1957 and president in 1964.

In 1949, during the TSP meeting that year, Dr. Grossman helped form the Section on Pathology of the Harris County Medical Society (later called the Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists).

Notable Publication(s)
Grossman, M. H., Lochte, W. P., & Coulter Sr, W. W. (1948). Prognostic significance of the vaginal smear after irradiation of uterine carcinoma. Texas state journal of medicine, 44(8), 594-596.
Smith, L., & Grossman, M. (1951). Necropsy authorization in Texas. Texas state journal of medicine, 47(3), 158-161.
Grossman, M. H. (1953). Sudden and unexpected natural death. Texas state journal of medicine, 49(1), 32-35.