Historical perspectives of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery: Thomas H. Burford (1907-1977)

摘要

Thomas Hannahan Burford, 51st president of The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), was a native of New Franklin in central Missouri, born on December 23, 1907. Burford's nickname "Black Tom" originally referred to his jet-black hair but persisted throughout his career because of his strict discipline and polarizing military temperament. Black Tom spent much of his youth hunting and fishing the tributaries of the Missouri River, experiences that instilled in him a rugged, self-sufficient character and pioneering innovativeness that eventually propelled his career in the relatively underdeveloped specialty of thoracic surgery during the mid-twentieth century. He also inherited a thorough admiration and fascination with trains and railroads from his father, who was a conductor on the Katy (Missouri-Texas) Line.