1932-1933 George R. Callender, USA

IAMM President 1932-1933

George Callender was born 13 May 1884 in Everett, Massachusetts and died in 1973.

He graduated from Tufts Medical College in Boston in 1908 and trained in the Department of Pathology and Bacteriology there. He joined the army in 1912, graduated form the Army Medical School in 1913 and was appointed 1st Lieutenant Medical Corps (Reserve), advancing to Brigadier General before retiring from the Army in 1945. In 1920, following a period as Assistant Curator, he was appointed Curator of the Army Medical Museum, the first officer who was recognized as a qualified pathologist. He wrote ‘Pathology of the Acute Respiratory Diseases’ in 1929 from material collected in World War I. George became a well-known ophthalmic pathologist and published several papers on melanomas of the eye. His classification of these tumors as a guide to prognosis received international acceptance. His special interest in tumors of the lymphatic system was one of the first to emphasize the diagnostic importance of the reticulin stain. His classification of lymphatic tumors in 1934 supplied the basis for our modern concepts of this group. He established the Registry of Ophthalmic Pathology (1922) and the Lymphatic Tumor Registry (1925) and inaugurated a program for the American Registry of Pathology under the sponsorship of the National Academy of Sciences. As President of the Army Medical Research Board he spent time in Manila, the Philippines and Panama studying tropical and viral diseases. George Callender ended his career as Commandant of the Army Medical Service School in Washington, DC, and established a centre for the laboratory diagnosis of viral diseases.