Pathfinders of the Heart

Pathfinders of the Heart Pathfinders of the Heart

About the Author William C. Sheldon's career at the Cleveland Clinic spanned forty-seven years, during which he was Chairman of Cardiology for sixteen. For the past ten years, in retirement, he remains a close, not entirely disinterested observer.He witnessed or participated in many of the events described in this monograph; what he didn't witness he was given first-person descriptions by those who did - two close friends, William L. Proudfit and Earl K. Shirey. Born in a small Wisconsin dairy town of a country lawyer and former nurse, Sheldon received his undergraduate and medical degrees at Northwestern University, in Evanston and Chicago. After an Internship at Northwestern's Passavant Memorial Hospital he and Margaret were married. Completing a residency in Internal Medicine in 1960 at Northwestern's V.A. Research Hospital in Chicago, he moved to Cleveland with his young family, ostensibly to specialize in Hypertension. But his first assignment, in the laboratory of F. Mason Sones, Jr., was a life changing experience. Now, from the perspective of an Emeritus Staff member, he describes the unique evolution of a Department in an era of relentless change in medicine, and how it came to be the nation's No. 1 program.