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` NEW ORLEANS 13 I
SCHOOL or MEDKHNE
DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY ¤
June 7, l9A8¢
Dr. Fred W. Rankin
AIO Security Trust Building
Lexington, Kentucky
Dear Fred:
I just wanted to let you know how pleased I was, as was everyone
else, about your election to the presidency of the American Surgical Associa-
tion. No one deserves this great honor as much as you, but it is a real
satisfaction to your friends that deserved honors are given. I wish that
you might have been at the meeting, because everyone was so oleased.about
your election and I, of course, swelled with a great deal of pride when I
felt that I knew you.
The meeting is splendid, and it is certainly a delightful spot to
hold it. You have never seen so many American docs in your life as there
were in those two weeks. The Pediatricians preceded the American Surgical,
the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, of which I happened to be
A president, followed the American Surgical, and the Orthopods followed the
Thoracic Surgeons. It was really a field day for American Physicians.
I presume you have heard that the next meeting is going to be
in St. Louis on May 2, 3, and A. I was in hopes that they would go to a
resort hotel, because it seemed to me as if the American was getting a little
sense and would continue going to resort hotels. I suppose I shouldn't be
too choosey, but should be perfectly satisfied to have the man whom I think
deserves it most be put in as president.
I I was sorry I had to be away when I was, because our eldest son
Alton, Jr. was graduated from Tulane and is now a full-fledged doctor. Unfor-
tunately, he got his degree at the same time I was giving my presidential
address.l Of course, his mother was here, and she glowed with pride, because
he got a large number of honors. Sis, our daughter, graduated from Finch on
Friday, and I was able to get down for that and Isabel came up for it, too.
Our family is pretty much grown up, and it is hard to realize that one of
. them has already finished medical school.
With love to you and Edith from all of us, I am s IH
Sincerely, I