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In This Issue:
Surgeon-in-Chief, Emeritus, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Francis Daniels Moore, MD, former surgeon-in-chief at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Moseley Professor of Surgery, Emeritus at Harvard Medical School (HMS), died on November 24. He was 88.
Hailed as one of the greatest surgeons of 20th Century, Moore was a pioneer and leader in the development of new surgical methods for operative surgery, organ transplantation, and perioperative care.
“Dr. Moore was a champion of innovation throughout the medical profession,” said Anthony Whittemore, MD, BWH chief medical officer. “A myriad of medical advances can be attributed to his active encouragement of collaboration between surgical and medical physicians.”
After brief stints as an attending surgeon at both MGH and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (PBBH), Moore was appointed surgeon-in-chief at PBBH and Moseley Professor of Surgery at HMS in 1948. He held these dual appointments for 28 years, and remained professor of surgery at HMS until 1981.
As surgeon-in-chief at the Brigham, Moore defined the field of surgical metabolism and guided the hospital though epochal advances in organ transplantation and open-heart surgery. In 1954, under Moore’s leadership, physicians performed the world’s first successful human organ transplant – a kidney between identical twins.
Focusing much of his research interest on body composition and surgical metabolism, Moore pioneered a new method for determining the volume of water and the weight of dissolved salts, sodium, and potassium, in the body. His work in metabolism progressed to improve nutrition and the care of surgical patients after extensive operation and multiple injury. His book The Metabolic Care of the Surgical Patient, published in 1959, was long a standard in the field.
Moore was instrumental in restructuring the hospital and its merger to form BWH in 1980. He was appointed an honorary life member of the hospital’s board of trustees in 1985. In 1990, an endowment for the Francis D. Moore Professorship of Surgery at HMS was established.
Moore is survived by his wife, Katharyn, by a sister, Harriet Moore Gelfan of Brattleboro, Vermont, and by his children: Nancy Moore Hill of Exeter, NH, Professor Peter B. Moore of New Haven, CT, Sarah Moore Warren of Grafton, VT, Caroline Moore Tripp of New York City, NY, and Dr. Francis D. Moore, Jr. of Medfield, MA. Moore is also survived by 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at The Memorial Church in Harvard Yard on December 21, 2001 at 11 a.m.
Contributions may be made to the Francis D. and Laura B. Moore Fund for Surgical Research, c/o BWH Development Office, 116 Huntington Avenue, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02116.