Seeking the Light
The Lives of Phillips and Ruth Lee Thygeson, Pioneers in the Prevention of Blindness
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About the Book
Phillips and Ruth Lee Thygeson were pioneers in medical research on external diseases of the human eye. Together, this husband-and-wife team shared a mutual story of extraordinary accomplishment including, among other things, the discovery of the cause of trachoma, a potentially blinding disease that affects millions of people worldwide.
This comprehensive biography tells the story of their personal lives and careers. Beginning with their family backgrounds, the story continues through their meeting on the campus of Stanford University, their years of practicing “frontier medicine” in rural Colorado (where they built a log cabin with their own hands), their world travels in search of a cure for trachoma, and their considerable roles in establishing the Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology. The story of this couple is one of a lifelong collaboration in medicine, a 70-year love affair, and an unending quest to conquer preventable blindness around the world.
About the Author(s)
Bibliographic Details
Beret E. Strong
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 263
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3673-6
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5217-0
Imprint: McFarland
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Foreword (by G. Richard O’Connor, M.D.) 1
Introduction 3
1. A Minnesota Childhood 7
2. A San Francisco Childhood 18
3. A Death in the Family 28
4. Genteel Poverty and a Pandemic 33
5. Meeting at Stanford 36
6. Courtship, a Wedding, and Victorian Values 43
7. Married and in Medical School 47
8. Frontier Medicine in Colorado 53
9. Building a Real Log Cabin 63
10. To Egypt in Search of Trachoma 72
11. Learning from a Nobel Laureate in Tunisia 78
12. Research Idyll in Iowa City 90
13. Fort Apache and the Great Experiment 101
14. The New York Chapter: Two Kinds of Politics 110
15. World War II in the Army Air Corps 132
16. California and an Experiment in Private Practice 149
17. The Francis I. Proctor Foundation for Research in Ophthalmology 153
18. Father and Son: From San Quentin to Steroids 158
19. Mother and Daughter: World Federalist and Equestrienne 166
20. The Glory Days of Academic Medicine 170
21. World Health Organization and World Class Editing 179
22. International Fellows and Fellowship 193
23. Lake Tahoe and the Alta California Eye Research Foundation 199
24. Ripened Souls Tend Their Orchard 203
25. The End of the Journey 210
Chapter Notes 225
Bibliography 243
Index 249
