A Note to Dr. Winternitz

Among the medical schools responsible for the surge forward of American Medicine in the first third of this century, the Yale Medical School has taken a special place. More than anyone you are responsible for the accomplishments and the continuing intellectual tradition of that school. To an admirable degree you have justified the trust placed in you that you would insist on putting your convictions regarding medical education into active and uncompromising application. Few deans of your generation had as clear a formulation of the importance of the intellect in medical education. None was as passionately determined to reform the medical school so as to produce doctors who could meet the need, not merely the demand, for comprehensive and comprehending medical care. You were a ferment where the proprieties could readily have sterilized an environment apparently reconciled to complacency. On top of regeneration and reform, your energy pressed further innovations, unremittingly. Relentless in criticism, tireless in enthusiasm, insistent on action, and unequalled in conviction, you gave yourself as well as the Yale Medical School no rest, no peace, and no counterfeits or excuses. I shall never stop admiring your fiery devotion to the best there is-human and superhuman.