Obituaries

Edgar Wayburn, FACP

Edgar Wayburn, FACP, a physician and legendary conservationist, died on March 5, 2010 at the age of 103.

Dr. Wayburn graduated from the University of Georgia at 19 and from Harvard Medical School at 23. He served in the Army Air Force and practiced medicine for more than 50 years. Dr. Wayburn held a teaching position first at Stanford University and then at the University of California, Berkeley. During his career, he also ran an outpatient clinic, worked part time as an epidemiologist, dabbled in medical research and was active in medical organizations.

Concerned about the impact of development on the California wilderness, Dr. Wayburn became involved in the Sierra Club early in the organization's history. He was president of the Sierra Club during the 1960s and served on the organization's board of directors between 1957 and 1993. In total, Dr. Wayburn is considered to be responsible for the conservation of more than 100 million acres of American wilderness.

Dr. Wayburn became a Fellow of the College in 1947 and received the Northern California chapter's Laureate award in 1995.

A full obituary by the New York Times and a profile by ACP Internist are online.

Helen M. Ranney, MACP

Helen M. Ranney, MACP, a pioneering researcher, died on April 5, 2010 at the age of 89.

Dr. Ranney received her undergraduate degree from Barnard College in 1941 and her medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1947, one of only five women in her class. She also completed her postgraduate training at Columbia.

Dr. Ranney first served as a professor of medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University, before moving on to State University of New York, Buffalo, and then the University of California, San Diego, where she was a long-time chairperson of the department of medicine.

During her career, Dr. Ranney was also chosen as a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a distinguished physician of the Veterans Administration. She was perhaps best known for her early research in hematology uncovering the genetic basis of sickle cell disease, which made it possible to test newborns for the disease.

Dr. Ranney became a Master of the College in 1980.

A full obituary is online in the New York Times.

William R. Taylor, FACP

William R. Taylor, FACP, a medical and political leader, died on April 22, 2010 at the age of 83.

Dr. Taylor attended the University of North Dakota School of Medicine followed by the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, N.C.

He interned at the Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, La., before completing residencies in internal medicine at St. Luke's Hospital in Fargo, N.D., and Wood VA Center in Milwaukee, Wis.

Dr. Taylor served in the Korean War and was a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps at the time of his honorable discharge in 1962. In 1958, he joined the staff at St. Luke's Hospital in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He founded the renal dialysis unit at St. Luke's Hospital and served as its medical director of from 1975 to 1989. Dr. Taylor was also the medical director of the hospital's ICU. After retiring from medical practice, was elected to the South Dakota State Senate and served two terms.

Dr. Taylor became a Fellow of the College in 1967 and served as ACP Governor for South Dakota from 1984 to 1988.