Albert Lasker
Public Service Award
Robert Defries
The Menninger Foundation
Nursing Services of the U.S. Public Health Service
Robert Defries
For distinguished leadership in the development of preventive medicine and public health throughout Canada.
Seldom is there combined in one man great scientific knowledge and judgment, together with the personality and organizing ability to carry through new technical advances to their effective application in the control of disease. From his position as head, and to a considerable extent the creator of the Connaught Medical Research Laboratories and the School of Hygiene of the University of Toronto, Robert Defries has played a unique part in the development of preventive medicine and public health in Canada. Because of his outstanding qualities, his work has been widely recognized in the United States and in many other countries; his consistent support of understanding and cooperation between American and Canadian scientists and health officers has contributed importantly to the happy relationships which now exist.
The public health professions in the United States are deeply in debt to the Connaught Laboratories for developing a method of large-scale production and supplying nearly all the virus used in the successful field trials of the Salk poliomyelitis vaccine in both countries in 1954. The fruitful use in 1955 of this virus in Canada is also founded on the work at the Connaught Laboratories under Dr. Defries.
His single-handed stimulation and guidance of the Canadian Public Health Association and its Journal, and his tireless and unassuming labors for the advancement of knowledge, for the control of diseases and for the training and inspiration of health workers are all deserving of our wholehearted admiration and gratitude.
The Menninger Foundation: Karl and William Menninger
For a sustained and highly productive attack against mental diseases, leading to better hospitals, better trained staffs and greatly improved care of the mentally ill.
The Menninger Foundation and Clinic, headed by Drs. Karl and William Menninger, has provided a sustained and highly productive attack against mental disease for many years. Inspired by their father, Dr. Charles Frederick Menninger, these brothers have developed an outstanding institution which has served as an example for other mental disease hospitals. Not committed to a single form of psychotherapy, they have utilized the best features of all methods in the care of their patients.
The Menningers have performed a great service in demonstrating the manner by which the majority of patients can be discharged for mental hospitals, and the periods of hospitalization markedly reduced. They have influenced the legislative bodies of many states to increase the funds for the care of mental disease and to use these funds wisely, especially in the procuring of trained personnel for the care of these patients. As a result of their leadership, Topeka has become a center for the training of additional psychiatrists so that more than 100 from widespread areas throughout the world are being trained there at all times. The influence of the Menninger Foundation and Clinic in increasing professional and public interest in the care of the mentally ill cannot be measured, but it is indelibly recorded as a great service to mankind.
Nursing Services of the U.S. Public Health Service: Lucile Leone, Pearl McIver, and Margaret G. Arnstein
For distinguished contributions to the advancement and well-being of the nation through their leadership in public health nursing.
The Nursing Services of the U.S. Public Health Service have significantly furthered the interests of public health and made a notable contribution to the advancement of the well-being of this country through leadership in public health nursing and through studies and research in the manifold fields of nursing.
From the field of nursing education, Lucile Petry Leone was called into war-time service to the difficult task of recruitment and training of personnel to meet the expanded need for nursing services in the military and civil populations. Her development and direction of the Cadet Nursing Program was a notable contribution to the war effort, achieved with strict adherence to the high standards that had already been realized by the nursing profession. This accomplishment paved the way for the needed post-war expansion of nursing service to the American public, a program in which the nursing resources of the U.S. Public Health Service, under the guidance and direction of Mrs. Leone, have played a role of leadership and guidance.
In Pearl McIver, public health nursing has had a forceful leader who has contributed immeasurably to the general understanding and appreciation of the role of the public health nurse and of the contribution that she makes to the over-all program of community health service and protection. The development of nursing programs in state and local health departments throughout the nation and their expansion into one of the bulwarks of public health are due in no small measure to the leadership, the enthusiasm and the farseeing guidance and stimulus provided by Miss McIver. Her devotion to the highest ideal of training and service has aided immeasurably in the development of the present professional standards of public health nursing.
The development of a broad and comprehensive nursing program geared to fit the needs of the American public within the limitations of available funds and personnel requires careful study of the nursing resources of the nation. Charged with the responsibility for appraisal of nursing needs and resources, Margaret Arnstein has furnished comprehensive national leadership and has given invaluable stimulation and guidance to state and local nursing programs in self appraisal of their respective problems. Her studies have constituted a pattern on which future programs of nursing research can be based. With a broad knowledge and deep appreciation of the potentialities of public health and hospital nursing services and their contribution to human welfare, Miss Arnstein has provided outstanding counsel, guidance, and leadership in the elevation and maintenance of the present high standards of nursing service in the United States.