Dr. Kenneth Cuyler Dies at 75
DR. W. KENNETH CUYLER
Dr. W. Kenneth (Cuyler, whose
scientific interests spanned nearly 70
years and ranged from observations
on the habits of snai^es and skunks to
all aspects of cervical cancer, died of
cancer himself here Monday at 8:45
p.m. He was 75.
Dr. Cuyler retired as professor of
obstetrics and gynecology at the
medical center in August, i970, and
had been in declining health for the
past two years.
He was admitted to the hospital on
June 12.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Julia
Anna Cuyler of 3706 North Ciarrett
Road in Durham, his son Robert
Duncan Cuvier of the same address
and a sister. Dr. Iona Hamlett of Ft.
Wayne, Ind.
•A memorial service for the scientist
was held in Duke (Miapel yesterday
aitei noon. His family has asked that
in lieu of flowers, donations by made
to the VV. Kenneth (Cuyler F.ducation
and Research Fund in (jynecologic
Cancer.
He established the fund himself
with a large contribution to the
university in 1973.
Born in Austin, lex., in October,
1900, Dr. (Cuyler earned a bachelor
of arts degree at the University of
Texas in 1923. Before continuing his
education, he embarked on a
31-month voyage aboard a sailing
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duke uniueusity mcdicM ccntaR
VOLUME 23. NUMBER 28
JULY 16,1976
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA
New Hyperbaric Chamber at F.G. Hall Lab
Will Simulate 3,500 Foot Ocean Depths
Man’s exploration of ocean depths,
severely limited because of physical
and emotional problems
encountered in the alien
environment, presents a challenge
which some medical researchers
l)elieve is greater than that of putting
a man on the moon.
Largely because of rapidly
increasing water pressure, they say,
and the effects it has on a man’s
physiological makeup, as a diver
descends he is faced with dramatic
changes in his capacity to think
clearly and to function effectively.
To help study these problems.
Duke will build experimental
chambers capable of simulating
conditions 3,500 feet beneath the sea
— a depth capacity unmatched in
other hyperbaric (high pressure)
chambers in the United States.
Duke now has a 1,000-foot capacity
chamber which has been used in
diving experiments for several years.
Researchers here point out that
man's (x:eann probes are modest
compared to the altitudes he has
reached in space.
Space Travel
Space travel has taken man a
quarter of a million miles from the
earth's surface. Thus far, his deepest
penetration of the ocean depths was
35,800 feet in a dive by the Navy in
w hich two men went to the bottom of
the Marianas Trench in the
southwest Pacific.
In that dive, however, the men
were enclosed in a pressurized
research venhicle, breathing
essentially normal air.
Free-swimming divers face far
greater limitations. When they
descend their bodies must make
adjustments to the pressures and to
the cold, and because of these
(Continued on page 3)
%
MONITORING A DIVE—Duke investigators monitor a recent
simulated dive to 1,000 feet under the sea in the hyperbaric
chambers. Standing at left is Dr. Peter Bennett, director of
diving research, and standing beside him is William Creemah,
supervisor of the chambers. Tommy Edwards, a chamber
operator, mans the console while Owen Doar, another
chamber operator, works in the foreground. (Photo by TIhid
Sparks)
ship to Africa, South America and
islands in the South Atlantic to collect
zoological speciments for the
(Cleveland Museum of Natural
History.
Details of the voyage x;cupy more
than half of the July, 1927, issue of
the National Cieographic Magazine,
and in the article, the leader of the
expedition credited his young
assistant with saving the three-masted
schooner in a gale.
In 1929, he earned a masters
degree in histology and embryology
at Western Reserve University, and
l>etween that year and 1938, he
served as director of the clinical
laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic
F'oundation.
Dr. Cuyler joined the Endocrine
Division of the Department of
Obstetrics and Gynecology here in
1938 and earned a Ph.D. in
physiology- and bicKhemistry at the
university in 1941.
Before his retirement he authored
or co-authored several book chapters
and more than 100 scientific papers
including 40 on basic and clinical
endocrinology with the late Dr. E. C.
Hamblen and 30 on genital cytology.
“Dr. Cuyler was a man of many
interests, indeed a Renaissance man,"
said Dr. Roy I'. Parker, F. Bayard
('arter Professor and chairman of
obstetrics and gynecology.
"His scientific career included
three phases," Parker said. “He
l)egan with an interest in all animal
and plant life, particularly in
reproductive phenomena, and then
progres.sed to endKrinology.
“After World War II, he studied
under Dr. C»eorge Papanicolaou at
C^ornell University and returned to
Duke to establish the Genital
Cytology Laboratory and to launch a
study which has eiKompassed some
115,()00 patients and 600,000 “Pap"
smears in the past 25 years.
(Continued on page 3)
Hospital Audiences
Completes Twelfth
Show, Plans More
Hospital Audiences, Inc., (HAI),
the non-profit service organization
that mobilizes and channels the
culttnal resources of the comminiity
for the lx;ncfit of the institutionalized
a:id disadvantaged, is now in its,
eighth month at the hospital.
Since December 10, the
organization has brought 12 different
performing arts groups to entertain
patients here, and on Wednesday,
July 21, at 8 p.m., it will sponsor
concert pianist Ruth Price in a
C.ourtyaid (Cafeteria recital.
HAi's most recent offering at the
hospital was a performance entitled
"Etn ythmy," staged by members of a
Durham Arts Council class in
interpretive movement.
Psychiatric patients served as hosts
for the June 27 event in their third
floor day unit, and children on the
pediatric wards and their parents
were the guests.
Sue Hodges, pediatric recreation
therapist, said the performance
particularly impressed the children
Ix'cause it featured players dressed as
birds, l)ears, mice and lions. It also
included a humorous skit about
being in a hospital.
" I'he performance was good for us
liecause it was geared to children,"
she said. "And the music was
(Continued on page 2)