Abstract
In 1159, John of Salisbury wrote: “We are as [sic]…dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants.…we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.” On May 1, 2014, our profession of veterinary pathology lost one of its last remaining giants.
Samuel Wesley (“Sam”) Thompson II was one such man, who not only laid the bedrock for our profession the world over, but, for the remainder of his life, served as one of its cornerstones. Born in rural Missouri, young Sam lived with his “Aunt Hat” at 103 Lucky Street in Fayette, Missouri, a street address that would predict Sam’s unique ability to be in the right place at the right time at so many points in his career. “Aunt Hat” was an important luminary in Missouri politics and was responsible for Sam’s interactions with President Harry Truman at not one, but two points in his career, and is likely responsible for Sam’s legendary organizational skills.
Sam was a 20-year-old graduate of the veterinary school in Ames, Iowa, in 1945 and shortly afterward married Barbara Jean Burnham. He was commissioned 18 months later as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Veterinary Corps, and served tours in California and Guam, before returning to Washington DC to become a laboratory officer at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR). In 1953, he returned to Iowa State to earn a master’s degree in veterinary pathology and virology, while simultaneously serving as professor of tactics in the ROTC program at Iowa State. In 1957, Sam worked at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), followed by a 6-year tour as Chief of the Pathology Division at Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver, where he became one of the world’s preeminent experts on parenteral nutrition (culminating in his first book of 930 pages, The Pathology of Parenteral Nutrition with Lipids). Following a subsequent tour as commanding officer for the U.S. Army Medical Research Unit in Panama, he returned to Washington, D.C., for 2 more tours at WRAIR and finally as senior veterinary pathologist. Sam retired after 20 years at the rank of Colonel.
Sam’s equally remarkable civilian career included 15 years at CIBA-Geigy, first as pathology department manager, and finally as senior research fellow, while keeping tabs with the U.S. Army as a civilian consultant for veterinary toxicology. He subsequently established one of the first and most sophisticated independent consultancies with his second wife, Dr. Vladislava Rac (whom he met as a widower at CIBA-Geigy), which set a very high bar for those who followed.
An outstanding career, but not, at least on first inspection, one worthy of giant status; it is the extracurricular activities of Dr. Thompson that have earned his place in the pantheon of veterinary pathologists. In 1971, Sam was a member of 2 discussion groups of toxicologic pathologists, one composed of human pathologists within the International Academy of Pathology (including Dr. Nelson Irey of the AFIP and Hans Keysser of the Squibb Institute), as well as the so-called Discussion Group of Industrial Pathologists including Dr. Howard Hartman, Daniel Sasmore, and Robert Diener) who met every other month in Summit, New Jersey, in order to swap glass slides and have a collegial dinner. A slide seminar at Lederle Labs in 1971 was serendipitous for the attendance of members from both groups, and an organizing committee was set (with Dr. Thompson at its center), for the creation of a specialty society. Following meetings at pharmaceutical laboratories in the area, as well as a number of meetings at Dr. Thompson’s home, the Society of Pharmacological and Environmental Pathologists (SOPEP) was chartered and incorporated in the state of New Jersey in October of that year. Nelson Irey was elected the first president, Sam as President-elect (and he served in 1973 as its President), and Howard Hartman as Secretary Treasurer. The first newsletter, the Bulletin of the Society, was published in 1972 with J. R. M. Innes as editor. In 1978, the name of the Bulletin was officially changed to Toxicologic Pathology, and in 1980, SOPEP officially became known as the Society of Toxicologic Pathologists (STP). In 1982, Sam was inducted as an Honored Member, and his personal recollections on the founding of this organization, including many of the back stories of its founding and founders were reprinted in Toxicologic Pathology, Volume 10, Number 1, 1982.
In 1973, while serving as the President of the STP, Sam was still meeting with Dr. Howard Hartman and Dr. Robert Diener, both of whom he had diligently assisted in their pursuit of certification by the American College of Veterinary Pathologists. Not willing to stop their weekly meetings to discuss interesting slides, Sam began hosting meetings in his Summit, New Jersey, garage on weekends, which would eventually include veterinary pathologists from other pharmaceutical laboratories as well as the University of Pennsylvania. As time went by, Dr. John King from Cornell University found out about the meetings and would drive hours to show and share slides. Simultaneously and coincidentally, following the passing of Dr. Charles Louis Davis, whom Sam had met and befriended while stationed in Fitzsimons Army Laboratory, family members of Dr. Davis approached Sam with a one-time donation of US$1,500, ostensibly with the intent to find a deserving veterinary student who needed tuition help. With the burgeoning success of his weekend study group, and realizing that the current organization for veterinary pathologists catered primarily to established pathologists but not those in training, he decided instead to expand the organization and offer training from experts in the field to pathology trainees everywhere.
While the STP was moving along smartly with renowned pathologists at the helm, the newly chartered Charles Louis Davis Foundation for the Advancement of Veterinary Pathology was something else entirely. Based out of his home in Summit, New Jersey, Sayre, Pennsylvania, and ultimately Gurnee, Illinois, Sam recruited volunteers from the ranks of veterinary pathologists (which he named his Faculty of Discussants) to travel and give lectures to pathologists in training around the country. Sam and his wife Vladislava (the Foundation’s longtime treasurer and comptroller) were at the center of this organization, handling all of the meeting registrations, soliciting funds from pharmaceutical companies, recruiting for the Faculty and board of directors, creating publications, and handling the phones and funds, in addition to charting the future of an organization that would within their lifetimes have over 6,000 members in over 40 countries around the world and whose courses are still considered almost mandatory for pathology residents. All of this was conducted out of the basement of their house (but would eventually occupy the house next door), while they were also running their business at the same time.
The Foundation was Sam, and his friends around the world knew that Sam was the Foundation. The Foundation’s credo: “The Foundation is apolitical, does not espouse nationalism, nor does a member’s race, ethnicity or religious preference influence membership” is vintage Sam Thompson. His small-town values were the Foundation’s lifeblood. Sam was in the office 12 hr each day, often 7 days a week, and his example led some of the finest pathologists in the world into the Foundation’s ranks, as meeting directors, lecturers, and patrons.
In a field in which publications are often a metric of contribution, Sam was the author of 62 publications in both English and Spanish, as first author on over 50. He published 6 book chapters, and wrote 5 books, including 2 unique books still considered authoritative references today, the 1,680-page Selected Histochemical and Histopathological Methods written with Lee Luna, and An Atlas of Artifacts Encountered in the Preparation of Microscopic Tissue Sections, published in 1978 (including artifacts rarely seen today, such as the appearance of cigarette or cigar ashes in tissue section!).
As a person, Sam was a human being of the finest caliber. I never saw him impatient, except in recent years as advancing age and infirmity made it difficult for him to get to his beloved Foundation offices in the house next door. I never saw him disappointed, even as he wrote thousands of fund-raising letters in vain, explaining the importance of veterinary pathology to corporations whose lack of vision failed in comparison to his. And he was generous to a fault, with his time and more—when funding was not available for awards or meetings or meals for students, it was always available at the end—I was later to find out it was often through an anonymous donation by none other than Sam. As was always the case, Sam preferred to work under the radar, ceding the spotlight to his colleagues. As one of many who benefited so often from Sam’s efforts and devotion, I can honestly say that he was the most giving and selfless man that I have ever met.
Among all of this, he was also a father and patriarch of not 1, but 2 families. He had 3 children, Barbara, Samuel III, and Maggie, with his first wife Barbara, and the family of his second and surviving wife, Vladislava, surrounded him and gave him great joy and comfort in the last several decades of his remarkable life. He took great pleasure and pride in the accomplishments of both families and was loved and revered in return. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Vladislava Rac of Gurnee, his daughter Maggie Elliott of Fayette, Missouri, 4 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. “He was a man, take him for all in all/I shall not look upon his like again.”