N T E R C O
MEDICAL CENTER
11111
DUKE UNIVERSITY
!!T:rr'
afilr?
Ill
VOLUME 13, NUMRBR 7/1966
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
Anatomy Has New Head
\
Kenneth L. Pickrell Richard M. Portwood Rubin Bressler
Three Major Title Changes Innonnced
Three major title changes at
the medical center have recently
been annonnced.
Affected by two of the title
changes are Dr. Kenneth L.
Pickrell, professor of plastic
surgery, who has been named
professor and chief of the Di
vision of Plastic and Maxillo
facial Surgery, and Dr. Rubin
Bressler, associate director of
the Clinical Research Unit, who
has been named director of the
Division >of Clinical Pharina-
cology.
Dr. Pickrell has been at Duke
since 1944 and has been both
secretary and president of the
American Society of Plastic and
Reconstructive Surgeons. He re
ceived his M.D. in 1935 from
Johns Hopkins Medical School
and did postgraduate work at
the school and at Johns Hopkins
Hospital until he .joined the
Duke faculty.
Dr. Bressler canu' to Duke in
1959 as a senior assistant resi
dent in medicine. He is a grad
uate of McGill University, Mon
treal, Canada, Harvard Medical
School, and Duke University
School of Jledicine. He recent
ly was jiromoted from associate
jirofessor of medicine to profes
sor of medicine and professor of
pharmacology.
The third major title change
involves Dr. Richard M. Port-
wood, who has been appointed
director of student health ser
vices at the university.
Dr. Portwood succeeds Dr.
Elbert L. Persons, professor of
medicine and associate professor
of community health sciences,
who will continue as a consultant
in student health.
An assistant professor of med
icine and of community health
sciences. Dr. Portwood joined
the Duke faculty in 1959 as an
assistant professor in medicine
and what then was preventive
medicine (now community health
sciences). He received his M.D.
degree from Southwestern iledi-
cal School of the University of
Texas in 1954.
Dr. J. David Robertson has
joined the medical center staff
and faculty as professor and
chairman of the Department of
Anatomy.
Dr. Robertson succeeds Dr.
Joseph E. Markee, who left at
the end of June on a year’s sab
batical leave. Dr. Markee, chair
man of the Department of Anat
omy since 1943 and presently a
James B. Duke Professor of
Anatomy, has been with Duke
for 23 years.
A native of Tuscaloosa, Ala
bama, Dr. Robertson received his
B.S. degree in biology from the
University of Alabama in 1942.
He received his M.D. degree
from Harvard in 1945 and his
Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1952
from the Massachusetts Insti
tute of Technology.
From 1952 to 1955 the new
chairman was assistant profes
sor of pathology and oncology
at the University of Kansas
Medical School in Kansas City,
Kansas. The next six years he
w'as in England, associated with
the Department of Anatomy at
the University College of Lon
don as an honorary research
associate.
At the time of his appoint
ment to the Duke faculty, Dr.
Robertson had been on the staff
at McLean Hospital, Harvard
^Medical School, since 1960 as !ui
associate biophysicist and assis
tant })rofessor of neuropatholo
gy-
A member of twelve profes
sional societies. Dr. Robertson
has also been elected to member
ship in Phi Beta Kappa, Phi
Eta Sigma, and Sigma Xi. He
is the author of over forty pub
lished scientific papers.
The Robertsons have three
children, Karen Lee, 19, Eliza
beth Ann, 15, and James David,
Jr., 13.
J. David Robertson
Did you Know?
As of July 1, 1966 the med
ical center had 3068 full-time
and part-time employees. In
cluding various training pro
grams and residency pro
grams the total is 3617. This
rei)resents more than 1/2 the
total number of university
employees.