NOTES AND NOTABLES
Kenneth T. Norris Jr. died on September 21 of a heart attack. He was 66.
Mr. Norris made possible the USC/Kenneth T. Norris Jr. Comprehensive Cancer Center and Hospital with a $5 million contribution from the Norris Foundation. The Norris Cancer Center Hospital opened in April 1983 as the only hospital in Southern California created exclusively for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. He contributed another $4.5 million for the Cancer Center's recent expansion.
Mr. Norris, a trustee of the university from 1980-85 and a board member of the Norris Cancer Center and Hospital, continued the tradition of philanthropy at USC started by his parents, Eileen and Kenneth True Norris, who created the Norris Medical Library at USC's Health Sciences Campus and the Eileen L. Norris Cinema Theatre and the Norris Dental Center on USC's University Park Campus. Kenneth Norris, Jr., underwrote renovation of the auditorium in USC's historic Bovard Administration Building.
He received a B.S. in industrial management from USC in 1953. From 1954-56, Norris served with the 12th Air Force in Germany. Except for his undergraduate studies and military service, he worked at Norris Industries-the company his father had founded in 1930- until the firm sold in 1981.
Both the University and the community have honored Norris for his civic involvement. He received USC's Asa V. Call Achievement award, the USC School of Business "Outstanding Achievement" Alumnus Award, and the USC School of Medicine Distinguished Service Award.
Norris is survived by his wife, Harlyne Norris, five children, and eight grandchildren.
Jeffry Huffman, M.D., M.H.A., associate professor of urology, was elected chief executive officer and medical director of the USC Care Medical Group, Inc. (USC Care) by its board of directors. USC Care is the non-profit organization formed to integrate the clinical services of the USC faculty physicians. For the past five years, Huffman has served as the medical director for USC Physicians, Inc. (USCP).
Other USC Care appointments include Fermin Vigil, chief operating officer; Norman Kachuck, M.D., associate medical director; Dale Garell, M.D., chairman of the board; Joan Skinner, secretary, treasurer and chief financial officer; and Tamara Capretta, vice president for clinical services.
Edward Crandall, M.D., Ph.D., the Hastings Professor of Medicine and chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine, has been named chair of the USC Department of Medicine.
Before joining the USC faculty in 1991, Crandall was chief of the division of pulmonary and critical care medicine at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center's Department of Medicine.
Crandall had been serving as interim department chair since April 1995.
A total of 142 USC full time and voluntary faculty gained recognition in the Best Doctors In America: Pacific Region. These physicians were chosen through a survey in which more than 5,000 physicians in the Pacific area were asked to rate the clinical abilities of their peers. This book is a regional companion to the national Best Doctors In America, in which USC had 101 physicians included.
Larry S. Nichter, M.D., clinical professor of surgery, recently returned from a trip to two remote islands off the coast of New Guinea where he served as chief of a surgical team that provided volunteer healthcare to the region. Surgeries were performed on patients with leprosy, trauma from shark and pig bites, and other unusual deformities and tumors not often seen in the U.S. Nichter was also among those recently named in the Best Doctors in America: Pacific Region under plastic surgery.
Beverly P. Wood, M.D., radiologist-in-chief, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and professor of radiology and pediatrics at USC School of Medicine, was recently awarded the gold medal of the Society for Pediatric Radiology at their 38th annual meeting. She is the first woman recipient of this prestigious honor given for outstanding contributions as a scientist, teacher, mentor and leader in the field of pediatric radiology.
University Professor of Law and Medicine Alexander Capron, L.L.B., was named to President Clinton's new National Bioethics Advisory Commission. The fifteen-member panel is charged with evaluating issues in bioethics, including the protection of human subjects in biomedical research and the management of genetic information.
Capron served as executive director of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine & Biomedical & Behavioral Research from 1980 until 1983, the last time the federal government named such a panel to study ethical problems in medicine and biomedical research.
Robert A. Beltran (M.D. '76), was appointed interim vice president, quality management for Latino Health Care, an independent practice association of primary care and specialty providers offering accessible, affordable and culturally and linguistically sensitive health care to the Latino community.
Beltran will oversee and develop quality management efforts for health care services including the specific health care needs of the Southern California Latino community. He will also interact with consumer watchdog groups and health maintenance organizations to foster a better understanding of cultural and linguistic barriers to health care.
Beltran, a general surgeon, is a prominent figure in the Mexican American Alumni Association at the USC School of Medicine, in addition to various medical and Latino organizations.
Dorothy "Dot" Richardson, M.D., the gold medal-winning 1996 Olympic softball team short stop returned to her third-year orthopaedic residency at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center.
Less than 24 hours after her medal-winning at-bat that brought two runners home, Richardson told the crowd of 200 journalists, colleagues and well-wishers gathered to greet her that such a welcome was unexpected and "awesome." She encouraged her colleagues to keep up the "gold medal" work they do every day at LAC+USC, and expressed her excitement about returning to the work she said she missed.
Shaul Massry, M.D., the Bernard J. Hanley Professor of Medicine and chief of the division of nephrology at the School of Medicine, is the founder of the Meira and Shaul Massry Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting education and research in nephrology, physiology and related fields.
The Massry Prize, started by the Foundation to honor individuals who have made outstanding contributions to biomedical sciences and the advancement of health, selected Michael John Berridge of the Babraham Institute of Cambridge, England as the recipient of this year's award. The selection committee cited Berridge's discoveries that lead to the deciphering of the chemical language used by cells to communicate with each other.
W. French Anderson, M.D., director of the Gene Therapy Laboratories, and USC professor of biochemistry and pediatrics, took second place in the Amateur Athletic Union's national master's black belt karate championship.
Anderson began competing in the martial art of tae kwon do 25 years ago, but switched to karate nine months ago in order to compete in the master's division.
Gerald "Jerry" Bosworth retired as chief executive officer of the USC University Hospital after an association with USC that spanned his 39-year health care career.
Bosworth moved from an administrative internship at Los Angeles County General Hospital in 1957 when he was still an undergraduate in public administration at USC, to progressively responsible positions in the health care field, until he joined National Medical Enterprises (now Tenet Healthcare Corporation) in 1985. The USC University Hospital opened in 1991.
Lee Domanico has been appointed chief executive officer of USC University Hospital. Domanico brings more than 20 years of health care experience to the position.
For the past six years, Domanico served as CEO of Columbus-Cabrini Health System in Chicago, a three-hospital health system that included a nationally recognized neurosurgery center, a 24-site ambulatory care network and Physician Health Organization. Domanico was recently named in the Los Angeles Business Journal's "Who's Who in Health Care."
Susan E. Downey, M.D., assistant professor of plastic surgery at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles made her fourth trip with Operation Smile, this time to help children in Yaroslavl, Russia, a community northeast of Moscow.
Downey spent two weeks in Russia repairing the lips and palates of children as part of a 31-member team of medical volunteers. She has made similar trips to India, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala, where she served as the team leader.
Operation Smile, an international non-profit organization working with volunteer labor and donated equipment and supplies, provides free, life-altering surgeries for impoverished children around the world. Operation Smile recently received the $1 million Hilton Prize, the largest humanitarian prize in the world.
Ruth Landsberger, M.D., assistant professor of clinical medicine in the division of general internal medicine, has been selected by the Society of General Internal Medicine to receive the society's National Award for Innovation in Medical Education. The award is intended to bring greater national attention to innovative work and promote innovative scholarship in medical education.
John Irvine, M.D., associate professor of clinical ophthalmology and medical director of the Doheny Eye Medical Group, was elected president of the Los Angeles Society of Ophthalmology. Irvine was treasurer and program chair of the society in 1992-94. He has the distinction of being the fifth physician in his family to work for the Doheny Eye Institute during the last 40 years.
Jeannie Brewer, M.D., a clinical instructor in family medicine, draws on her own personal and medical experiences of helping friends and patients infected with HIV in telling the fictional story of a young couple's poignant struggle to support each other when faced with the inevitability of death, Brewer's book, "A Crack in Forever", is being heralded as a Love Story of the 90s, capturing the passion, power and immortality of love. The book was released in August by Simon & Schuster, Inc.