There is one significant element that was intended for this volume which is unfortunately missing.It was our request that Dr.Harry M.Zimmerman provide us with an introduction to this volume. He had agreed and was in the process of preparing his contribution when this formidable and seemingly indestructible figure was taken from us by cancer.
Dr.Zimmerman was as vigorous at 94 years old as can be imagined. He lived in the present and for the future.Yet what a past he had! Dr.Zimmerman worked with Harvey Cushing at Yale and regaled me with stories of how Dr.Cushing and he went to baseball games, shared a common backyard area in their adjoining homes,and worked together to define basophilic adenomas of the pituitary gland. Dr.Zimmerman proudly displayed an autographed photograph of Dr.Cushing, addressed to him,“with basophilic regards——Harvey Cushing.”
Upon leaving Yale, he joined the Navy, rose to the rank of Commander,and worked with Dr.Albert Sabin on viral diseases and vaccines. During this time, he was close to Admiral Chester Nimitz and a photograph of these two figures also graced the wall of his office.Admiral Nimitz was extremely interested in medical issues and apparently had really wanted to become a physician but could not afford the cost.