1940-1941 Tracy Burr Mallory, USA

IAMM President 1940-1941

Tracy Burr Mallory born 26 October 1896 in Boston, Massachusetts and died 11 November 1951 in Boston, Massachusetts.

He was the son of the famous Boston based pathologist, Frank Burr Mallory. He graduated from Harvard College as an undergraduate in 1918 and from Harvard Medical School in 1921, and after some years in postgraduate study in Boston, as the recipient of the Moseley Travelling Fellowship he studied in England, Germany and Austria. On his return to Boston he was appointed Chief of Pathology and Bacteriology at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1925-1951. From 1930-1951 he was Professor of Pathology, Harvard Medical School. From 1935-1951 he was Head and Editor of the famous Case Records of the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Clinicopathologic Conferences which were published regularly in the New England Journal of Medicine. He was chief consultant in Pathology for the US Army during the Mediterranean Campaign of WW2 and he was awarded the Order of the Legion of Merit for this service.

He published extensively, including on war related injuries. He was assistant editor of the American Journal of Pathology, President of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists in 1950, and a Founding Fellow of the College of American Pathologists. An anecdote that reflects the attitude of some of the older pathologists of his day to the introduction of new technology in the late 1940’s goes as follows: An effusive young salesman demonstrated to him a newly invented mechanical stage for his microscope that would ‘revolutionise’ his use of the microscope. The excited salesman then asked the ‘great man’ what he thought of it. Mallory removed the cigarette from his mouth and asked, ‘Does it come off?’