Chester R. Burns (1937–2006) and the origins of the American Osler Society

Chester Ray Burns

Chester Burns was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and received his undergraduate and medical degrees (1959 and 1963, respectively) from Vanderbilt University in that city. As an undergraduate he majored in philosophy, was president of the Debate Club, and belonged to the Glee Club, the Skull and Bones Pre-Med Club, and other organizations. ⁵ He received his undergraduate degree with honors but finished medical school in the lower third of his class. The dean of students at Vanderbilt, however, noted that his academic record “does not represent his scholastic ability,” and that while he “experienced considerable difficulty… during his first two years” his work during the third and fourth years showed “progressive improvement.” The dean of students further noted that he got on well with fellow students and served as president of his medical fraternity and president of the Vanderbilt Historical Society. These attributes served him well during his subsequent career as a physician-humanist.

Burns did an internship in pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma, during which he applied to become a doctoral candidate in the History and Philosophy of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. No record of his application exists apart from its approval by Owsei Temkin (1902–2002), director of the Institute of History of Medicine at Hopkins. ⁶ In 1969 Burns became the first American-born physician to receive a doctorate in the history of medicine from Johns Hopkins. (Of the four previous persons to receive Ph.D. degrees in the history of medicine from Johns Hopkins, two were non-physicians and two were physicians born outside the U.S.) His doctoral dissertation was on “Medical Ethics in the United States before the Civil War.” ⁷ The dissertation was not published but has been frequently cited in the literature and formed the basis for some of Burns’s later work.

In August 1969 Burns was hired fresh out of his doctoral program by Truman Blocker (1909–1984) to become director of a new History of Medicine Division at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. Burns spent the rest of his career at that institution and eventually wrote its centennial history. He noted that some of the original professors at UTMB, which was founded in 1891, lectured in medical history, ethics, and jurisprudence although none had specific training in these areas. ⁸ In 1952 Chauncey D. Leake (1896–1978), who was then dean of UTMB, hired Patrick Romanell (1912–2002), who had a doctorate in philosophy from Columbia University, to teach ethics and philosophy. Romanell left the UTMB in 1962 and teaching in the humanities lay fallow until Blocker became chief executive officer and, in 1965, invited Leake to come back to lecture in the history and philosophy of medicine. Blocker later obtained funding from the Rockwell Foundation in Houston to endow a professorship in the history of medicine. Burns was thus the first person to fill that position (Figure 1).

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Figure 1.

Chester R. Burns at the time of his hiring at UTMB in 1969. Courtesy of University of Texas Medical Branch, Blocker History of Medicine Collection, Moody Medical Library.

Burns and the founding of the American Osler Society

Concern that science and technology were eroding the humanistic dimensions of medicine accelerated during the 1960s, prompting McGovern and Alfred R. Henderson (1920–2019) to consider a new organization to address this problem. They envisioned a symposium on “Humanism in Medicine” as a trial balloon. ⁹ McGovern hoped to hold the symposium in Houston, and to that end worked with H. Grant Taylor (1903–1995), dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston (now the John P. and Kathrine G. McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center, Houston). Taylor encountered obstacles at his institution and therefore consulted Blocker at UTMB, who agreed to hold the meeting in Galveston. Blocker instructed Taylor to ask McGovern to contact Chester Burns to begin planning for the symposium on Humanism in Medicine. ¹⁰

McGovern and Burns already knew of each other if only by correspondence. The link dates to 1968 as evinced by correspondence filed at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. McGovern was looking for a good copy of the second edition of The Principles and Practice of Medicine by Osler. How Burns learned of McGovern’s need remains a mystery—perhaps McGovern asked someone at Johns Hopkins for a recommendation, and was referred to Burns—but at any rate McGovern offered Burns $6.00 for the book plus payment for the postage. ¹¹

Burns apparently agreed to do most of the legwork for the symposium on Humanism in Medicine, including a meeting of the Program Committee held in Galveston on 7 January 1970. Shortly thereafter, on 7 February, McGovern signed the Articles of Incorporation of the AOS in Houston. ¹² The five original trustees were William Bennett Bean (1909–1989), George T. Harrell (1908–1999), Thomas M. Durant (1905–1977), McGovern, and Henderson. Bean, Harrell, and Durant consented to serve as president, first vice president, and second vice president, respectively. Edward C. Rosenow, Jr. (1909–2002) became the sixth officer as secretary-elect.

The symposium on Humanism in Medicine took place 21–22 April 1970 at the Flagship Hotel in Galveston, hosted by McGovern and Burns. ¹ The stated aims were to address how humanism is manifested in the history of medicine, “whether humanism has a place in the construction of goals and priorities in medicine,” and “why William Osler is revered as a medical humanist.” Three of the 13 papers were given by the honored guests who had known Osler—Davison, Holman, and Penfield—who discussed their understanding and experience of Osler’s effect on medical humanism (Figure 2). Six other presentations further described Osler’s influence on the humanities and the persons who had influenced Osler. The remaining four presentations dealt with various aspects of humanism in the medical past and the impact of humanism on the education of the physician.

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Figure 2.

Photographs and autographs of Wilburt C. Davison, Emile F. Holman, and Wilder G. Penfield from the 1970 Symposium Humanism in Medicine. Courtesy of the University of Texas Medical Branch, Blocker History of Medicine Collection, Moody Medical Library.

McGovern received most of the credit for the symposium, as evinced by a letter from Bean congratulating him on the “magnificent program, magnificent in conception and in execution.” ¹³ There is no written documentation that any attendees acknowledged Burns for having done most of the organizational work, although some, including Emile Holman and Wilburt Davison, thanked him for kindnesses and courtesies that helped make the meeting so enjoyable and memorable. ²

Burns did not become a charter member of the AOS even though he did much and perhaps most of the organizational work for the symposium. The trustees had met in February 1970, two months before the symposium, and elected 30 charter members from a pool of 60 nominees. McGovern expressed his regrets to Burns: “I did put your name into the pot but unfortunately, we didn’t make it this go-round, as the majority wished to select individuals who had demonstrated a long-time interest in Osleriana and related aspects. I have little doubt, however, that you will be elected at the next general membership meeting next year as I am on the nominating committee.” ¹⁴ Burns was elected into the second class of inductees and introduced at the May 1972 meeting, which took place in Montreal. ¹⁵

Burns’ subsequent career

Burns co-edited with McGovern Humanism in Medicine (1983), a monograph containing all of the papers presented at the 1970 symposium. Again, it is unclear how much of the work was done by McGovern and how much by Burns. Burns went on to become a major force in developing the humanities program at UTMB. He was largely responsible for obtaining systems approval and financial support, including a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts of which he was principal investigator, to establish an Institute for the Medical Humanities. ¹⁶

This institute has now provided educational programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the UTMB Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health Professions for nearly half a century. ¹⁷

William B. Bean, the first president of the AOS, was appointed the first Director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at UTMB, with Burns being appointed co-director. ¹⁸ Bean resigned his Directorship in 1979, and Burns was appointed as Acting Director through January 1981. ¹⁹ Burns became interested in Osler as a result of the 1970 symposium and continued that interest, eventually serving as the thirty-fifth president of the AOS (2004–2005). ²⁰ He published actively in ethics and philosophy as well as in the history of medicine and supervised graduate students in these areas. He retired from UTMB shortly before his unexpected death in 2006. ^{21 –26}

The questions posed in the introduction to the symposium on the Humanism in Medicine still resonate in medical education. What do we mean by “humanism”? Are the humanities necessary for “humanism”? How can we best balance detached objectivity with empathic caring in medical education? Burns worried about these issues and tried as best he could to integrate the humanities into the process of educating future physicians and keeping these issues in front of his colleagues. After all, his first student in developing the curriculum for this process was himself. ²⁷ Chester Burns’s dedication to the humanities and medicine is made manifest by the life he lived. The hope in presenting this brief narrative of his life is that others will remember him as a contributor to the early evolution of the American Osler Society and as a staunch advocate for the integration of the humanities into medical education and the practice of medicine.