William Shainline Middleton

Middleton was born in January 1890 in Norristown, Pennsylvania,{{cite news|title=Dr. William Middleton Dies (continued) |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33410378/william_shainline_middleton_18901975/ |newspaper=The Capital Times |date=September 10, 1975 |page=4 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate = July 1, 2019}} {{Open access}} to Daniel and Anne Middleton, the second of their four children. His father was a salesman for a candy company.http://search.ancestry.com/browse/view.aspx?dbid=7884&iid=PAT624_1379-0577&pid=110508829&ssrc=&fn=William+S&ln=Middleton&st=g, Accessed 9-30-2009. Middleton entered the University of Pennsylvania in 1907 and obtained an M.D. in 1911.Warthin TA: Memorial-- William Shainline Middleton. Trans Am Clin Climatol Assoc 1977; 88: 57-59 Thereafter, Middleton served as an intern at Philadelphia General Hospital under the direction of David Riesman (physician) (Senior). Middleton later stated that his own practices in physical examination of patients, teaching of medical students and house officers, and ethics were derived from those of Riesman.Lowe S: The University medical school-- a personal history. William Shainline Middleton: an interview. University of Wisconsin Archives Oral History Project, 1972.

Middleton was invited to join the faculty at the University of Wisconsin (UW; in Madison, WI) - then a 2-year medical school - immediately after his internship. He moved to Madison in 1912 as a Clinical Instructor in Medicine, principally serving students at the fledgling UW student health center, along with its director, Joseph Spragg Evans.Oliver R: Making the modern medical school: the Wisconsin stories, Science History Publications, Sagamore Beach, MA, 2002. {{ISBN|0-88135-362-0}} Middleton had broad interests regarding areas of clinical investigation, but they especially centered on sarcoidosis, pneumoconiosis, hematological disorders, infectious diseases and medical history.Becker IM: William Shainline Middleton: 1890-1975. Wisc Med Alumni Quart, 1989.Middleton WS: The riddle of sarcoidosis: Hutchinson-Boeck granulomatosis. Ann Intern Med 1954; 41: 465-478.Middleton WS: Streptomycin therapy of Hemophilus influenzae endocarditis lenta. Ann Intern Med 1949; 31: 511-513.Dickie HA, Middleton WS: Some clinical expressions of sarcoidosis (Boeck). Wis Med J 1949; 48: 407-412.Middleton WS: Viral pneumonia. Rocky Mt Med J 1948; 45: 285-289.Middleton WS: The hematopoietic effects of irradiation injury. Mil Med 1956; 118: 251-256.Curreri AR, Middleton WS: Aplastic anemia: case report of an apparent response to the transplantation of rib marrow. Wis Med J 1969; 68: 270-272.Middleton WS: Medicine at Valley Forge. Ann Med Hist 1941; 3rd Series #3: 461-486. He steadily rose through the academic ranks, and when the medical school became a four-year degree-granting entity in 1924 and built a university hospital, Middleton emerged as a central figure in the education of third- and fourth-year clinical clerks as well as house officers in internal medicine. He was known for his mastery of the physical examinationLawrence PF, Bell RM, Dayton MT, Ahmed MI (Eds): Essentials of General Surgery, 4th Ed., Lippincott-Williams-Wilkins, Philadelphia, 2006; p. 430. {{ISBN|0-7817-5003-2}} and for his consummate professionalism. Middleton sign is still one of the best methods for identifying splenomegaly.Bailey H. Demonstrations of Physical Signs in Clinical Surgery, 11th ed. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, 1949Grover SA, Barkun AN, Sackett DL. Does this patient have splenomegaly? [see comments]. J Amer Med Assoc. 1993; 270(18):2218-21, Nov 10. A novel and innovative program of "preceptorships" was initiated in 1926, wherein senior medical students were assigned to work with community practitioners throughout Wisconsin as a prelude to internship. That system of mentoring continues to this day. After the death of UW medical school Dean Charles Russell Bardeen in 1935, Middleton was named as his successor. The deanship was a difficult position at that time, because of growing factionalism among academic departments and their faculty members. In spite of that problem, the school flourished under Dean Middleton's guidance over 20 years. He continued to teach actively and to pursue his own research interests despite the administrative demands on his time, ultimately producing more than 300 contributions to the peer-reviewed medical literature. In 1939, the American Board of Internal Medicine was constituted under the aegis of the American Board of Medical Specialties. Middleton was asked to serve as one of the eight initial Board members, and was named Secretary-Treasurer of the organization. He was instrumental in formulating a national curriculum for residency training in internal medicine and a structured system of examination to achieve board-certification in that medical specialty.Middleton WS: The destiny of the American College of Physicians. Ann Intern Med 1951; 35: 1-7.

A collection of his papers is held at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland.{{cite web|url=http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/middleton|title=William Shainline Middleton Papers 1902-1973|publisher=National Library of Medicine}}

File:wsmiddleton1918.jpg

Middleton served as a general medical officer with the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I, from 1917 to 1919. He remained in the U.S. Army Reserve following the end of the war, and, after the renewed outbreak of world hostilities in 1939, Middleton began to serve an increasingly active role as an advisor to the U.S. Army Medical Corps. When the U.S. entered the war, Middleton was recalled to active duty as Chief Consultant in Medicine, in the European Theater of Operations. He had an Army counterpart-consultant in surgery, Elliott Cutler,[https://web.archive.org/web/20020711053357/http://www.pbs.org/wnet/redgold/innovators/bio_cutler.html Elliot Cutler]. Accessed 7-27-09. and, together, they shaped the process for the care of sick and injured American soldiers in Europe. In addition, Middleton was asked to care personally for several high-profile, high-ranking officers in both the American and British armies during the conflict.Clark PF: The University of Wisconsin Medical School: A Chronicle, 1848-1948. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 1967; pp. 58-62. ASIN: B0014LYEME Middleton attained the rank of colonel (O-6) in the Army Medical Corps. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and the Order of the British Empire.

File:distservmedal.jpg|U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal

File:Legionnaire of the Legion of Merit.jpg|Legion of Merit

File:Croix-De-Guerre-Francis-Browne.jpg|Croix de Guerre

File:Order of the British Empire in the Grade of Commander (CBE) - IMG 4974.JPG|Order of the British Empire

In 1955, Middleton was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower as Chief Medical Director of the Department of Medicine & Surgery of the U.S. Veterans Administration. He relinquished his deanship and served the government in that capacity for eight years, but retained a presence at UW as well.[http://www.med.wisc.edu/education/md/resources/learning-communities/middleton-house/662 Middleton House]. Accessed 7-27-09. Programs for veterans that were developed during his tenure included improved access to physical rehabilitation services, mental health care, and treatment for cardiovascular diseases. In recognition of that work, the Veterans Hospital in Madison was named the "William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Administration Hospital" in the mid-1970s.http://www.madison.va.gov/

According to the Veterans Health Administration Office of Research and Development, the William S. Middleton Award is the highest honor awarded annually by their Biomedical Laboratory Research & Development Service "to VA biomedical research scientists in recognition of their outstanding scientific contributions and achievements in the areas of biomedical and bio-behavioral research relevant to the healthcare of veterans."{{cite web |url=http://www.research.va.gov/programs/blrd/research-awards.cfm |title=VA BLR&D Research Awards |author=Veterans Health Administration Office of Research and Development |authorlink=Veterans Health Administration Office of Research and Development |work=www.research.va.gov/ |publisher=U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs |location=Washington, D.C. |accessdate=May 16, 2012}}

Middleton received many professional accolades during his long career. He was given six honorary doctorate degrees, including the D.Sc. from Cambridge University. Middleton was an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK); a Master and former President of the American College of Physicians; a recipient of the Alumni Award of Merit from the University of Pennsylvania; and a recipient of the UW Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching.

Middleton married Maude H. Webster in 1921. She died in 1968, and the couple had no children.http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=william+s.&gsln=middleton&_81004010=1890&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=59726208&recoff=1+2+3&db=1930usfedcen&indiv=1, Accessed 10-3-2009. In 1973, Middleton married a second time, to Ruth Adams, who had been a member of his staff in the Veterans Administration. He was a fierce competitor in tennis and handball, and swam in Madison's Lake Mendota every summer morning until the age of 81.Miller TG: Memoir of William S. Middleton, 1890-1975. Trans Stud Coll Physicians Phila 1976; 43: 433-434.

William S. Middleton died of pneumonia at the Madison Veterans Hospital in September 1975, at the age of 85.{{cite news|title=Dr. William Middleton Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/33380181/william_shainline_middleton_18901975/ |newspaper=The Capital Times |date=September 10, 1975 |page=1 |via = Newspapers.com |accessdate = June 30, 2019}} {{Open access}}http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=angs-g&gsfn=william+s.&gsln=middleton&_81004010=1890&_81004030=1975&pcat=ROOT_CATEGORY&h=1299445&recoff=1+2+3&db=WIdeathindex&indiv=1, Accessed 10-3-2009. He is buried in Madison.

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Category:People from Norristown, Pennsylvania

Category:Military personnel from Madison, Wisconsin

Category:United States Army Medical Corps officers

Category:20th-century American educators

Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army)

Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit

Category:American recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)

Category:United States Army personnel of World War I

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty

Category:1975 deaths

Category:1890 births

Category:Military personnel from Pennsylvania