Dr. Thomas C. Peebles, 89, groundbreaking pediatrician who first isolated the measles virus
Hoodoo
By Herald Staff
Sunday, July 25, 2010
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/obituaries/view/20100725dr_thomas_peebles/
Thomas C. Peebles of Port Charlotte, Fla., a decorated World War II
veteran and a groundbreaking pediatrician who first isolated the measles
virus, died July 8 at his home after a lengthy illness. He was 89.
Dr. Peebles was raised in Newton. He lived in Weston before moving to
Port Charlotte in 1995.
He graduated from Newton High School in 1938 and was a 1942 graduate of
Harvard College, where he majored in French, played tennis and was a
drummer and manager of the Harvard Band. He later studied pre-med at
Boston University and then attended Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Peebles enlisted in the Navy as an aviator, assigned to the Naval
Air Station in Squantum in 1942. He was transferred to the Pensacola
Naval Air Station in Florida the next year and then to San Diego to join
the VB-109 unit as a pilot aboard a B-24 flying across the Pacific.
After serving two tours, Dr. Peebles reached the rank of lieutenant and
received the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Air Medals, a Presidential
Unit Citation, Navy Unit Commendation and World War II Victory Medal.
Dr. Peebles taught French and third grade at Aiken Preparatory School in
Aiken, S.C., for one year before attending medical school. While in
medical school, he and his first wife ran a laundry service for Harvard
students. In 1953, he set up a medical practice at his home in Weston.
Dr. Peebles completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at
Massachusetts General Hospital, becoming chief resident in pediatrics.
During his career, he served as assistant chief of the children’s
service and director of pediatric education at MGH.
He was a fellow in infectious disease at Children’s Hospital, where he
began work that isolated a strain of the measles virus in 1954 and led
directly to a measles vaccine.
Dr. Peebles’ research also led to a change in protocol for tetanus
booster shots and was involved in the first tests of flouride
supplements for children.
In 1970, he moved his pediatric practice to the Taylor Medical Building
in Weston, which he purchased, creating General Medical Associates. It
later joined five other group practices to create MultiGroup Health
Plan. Dr. Peebles served as chief executive officer, medical director
and chairman. When the plan merged with Harvard Community Health Plan,
he became president.
Dr. Peebles retired in 1994.
He served on the admissions committee and taught pediatrics at Harvard
Medical School. He was a board examiner and active member of the
American Board of Pediatrics and an active member of the American
Medical Association. In the 1980s, he served as a special adviser for
health policy to the secretary of health and human services. He also
served as school physician for the town of Weston and Perkins School for
the Blind. He was on the board of trustees of Meadowbrook School in
Weston, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School and Urbana University. He was
active with Church of the New Jerusalem in Boston.
Dr. Peebles loved to throw parties at his home in Weston and his
vacation home in Cataumet and played drums in a Dixieland jazz band with
fellow doctors. He enjoyed playing tennis, winning several singles and
doubles tournaments. He was an ardent sailor and enjoyed clamming and
playing golf.
Dr. Peebles is survived by his wife, Anne Diffley Peebles of Port
Charlotte; a daughter, M’Lou Peebles Douglass of Cataument; two sons,
James Eldridge of Severna Park, Md., and Douglas Cutler of Wayland; a
sister, Carol McLain of Melrose; his former wife, Katherine Reese
Peebles of Waltham; five grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service for friends will be held Sept. 18 in Cataumet.
Burial will be private.
--
Trout Mask Replica
KFJC.org, WFMU.org, WMSE.org, or WUSB.org;
because the pigoenholed programming of music channels
on Sirius Satellite, and its internet radio player, suck
Brad Ferguson
<ver...@objectmail.com> wrote:
> Dr. Peebles is survived by his wife, Anne Diffley Peebles of Port
> Charlotte; a daughter, M’Lou Peebles Douglass of Cataument; two sons,
> James Eldridge of Severna Park, Md., and Douglas Cutler of Wayland; a
> sister, Carol McLain of Melrose; his former wife, Katherine Reese
> Peebles of Waltham; five grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
Bastards. They forgot to mention Magilla Gorilla.
R H Draney
Some papers still omit a decedent's "long time companion"....r
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
Susan Saunders
I'm one of the nieces here, daughter of Carol McLain.
Hoodoo
Thomas Peebles, who died on July 8 aged 89, was a biologist whose
laboratory breakthrough provided the catalyst for the development of a
measles vaccine; he also served as an adviser to the Reagan
administration and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for service
in the US Navy during the war.
Published: 5:57PM BST 10 Aug 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/medicine-obituaries/7937398/Thomas-Peebles.html
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01694/peebles_1694306f.jpg
Thomas Peebles
It was in 1954, three years after graduating from Harvard Medical
School, that Peebles made his measles breakthrough — successfully
isolating a strain of the virus while working with John Enders at
Children’s Hospital Boston.
Enders — known as “the father of modern vaccines” — was trying to
develop a safeguard against measles. The disease affected nearly all
children before the age of 15 and killed more than 400 people in the
United States every year. In 1911 researchers had discovered that
measles is caused by a virus. The problem was isolating that virus in
laboratory conditions, so that a vaccine could be developed.
Following an outbreak at a local school, Peebles succeeded in isolating
the virus in a throat swab from an 11-year-old pupil called David
Edmonston. Enders had been sceptical about Peebles’s work, but once the
virus had been isolated he and other researchers set about developing a
vaccine. They did this by reproducing the virus continuously until they
produced a strain that was weaker than the natural, “wild” variety.
The weakened virus — dubbed the Edmonston B vaccine — was licensed by
the US Food and Drug Administration in 1963. In 1964 there were 458,000
measles cases in America; this fell to 62,000 in 1967. Since then a
further 21 strains of the virus have been identified, and deaths have
been largely eliminated throughout the developed world.
Peebles attributed his success to perseverance, youthful enthusiasm and
a “failure to be bound by preconceived ideas”. In later years his other
medical breakthroughs included the invention of fluoride supplements for
children’s vitamins, as well as a safer way of administering tetanus
vaccine.
Thomas Chalmers Peebles was born on June 5 1921 at Newton,
Massachusetts. After high school he studied French at Harvard,
graduating in 1942. Medicine, he recalled, had been “an early ambition,
but a D in biology had dampened my freshman year enthusiasm”.
He later attributed his medical career to a flight surgeon he met during
the war, who had been a great promoter of the profession, aided by
“medicinal” whisky which, according to Peebles, “copiously contributed
to our discussions”.
Peebles flew a B-24 Liberator bomber — nicknamed “Monkey Business” — in
the Pacific; his crew testified to his bravery and skill in the cockpit.
After the war, Harvard Medical School turned him down on account of his
poor grade in biology.
He took pre-med classes at Boston University for a year and later taught
French at a school in Aiken, South Carolina, before Harvard Medical
School decided to admit him after all.
Peebles completed his internship and residency in paediatrics at
Massachusetts General Hospital, and went on to become its chief resident
in paediatrics. After work as a fellow in infectious disease at
Children’s Hospital Boston, he worked as a private practitioner and
taught at Harvard Medical School.
He went on to advise the Reagan administration on health policy; in 1991
he debated the former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis
on the proposition that private delivery of health care services in
America had failed. He had gained insight into the health care business
after founding General Medical Associates, a group paediatric practice,
in 1970.
In 1986 he became president of Harvard Health group. Eight years later
he sold General Medical Associates and retired.
Thomas Peebles married, in 1945, Katherine Reese. They divorced in 1975,
and in 1985 he married Anne Diffley, who survives him with his three
children.
Ray
> Thomas Peebles
>
> Thomas Peebles, who died on July 8 aged 89, was a biologist whose
> laboratory breakthrough provided the catalyst for the development of a
> measles vaccine; he also served as an adviser to the Reagan
> administration and was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for service
> in the US Navy during the war.
>
>
> http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01694/peebles_1...
Thanks for the Dr. Peebles obit. He was the chairman of our research
group until a few years ago. His work with fluoride is on
http://prophyresearch-ivil.tripod.com/id22.html
Here is a copy:
Fluoride pioneer retires
If you were born since 1961 and have a nice set of choppers, you may
be interested in the retirement of the doctor who helped you way back
when. About 1 out of 4 people in this age group will be able to look
in a mirror and see clear signs that Dr. Peebles helped them.
Dr. Tom Peebles was fresh out of Harvard medical school in 1953 when
he began the first clinical trial of using fluoride in the common
vitamins mothers gave to their newborns. This was a new way to deliver
fluoride. It is different from fluoridated water in that it starts
earlier (birth, rather than whenever you start drinking water), and
the doses are far more certain.
Fluoridated water prevents about half of cavities. Most people who had
it have far better teeth than their parents, but the prevention is not
the specific stereotype seen with the vitamins. There are usually lots
of fillings, just very small, and widely distributed in the mouth.
By 1961 Dr. Peebles’ clinical trial had resulted in approval of a new
product with Hoyt Pharmaceutical Company. (Other companies quickly
followed. The popular Poly-Vi-Flor® from Mead Johnson was introduced
the next year.)
Since fluoridated water was blocked in about half the country, the
demand for the fluoridated vitamins was intense. Approximately 80% of
the kids born after 1962 got them, if they lived in un-fluoridated
areas.
In 1974 Dr. Peebles (a pediatrician), along with a Norwegian dentist,
Dr. Aasenden, published the first of his reports. The cavity-
prevention was a phenomenal 80%, but the dosage turned out to be a
little too strong. Many of the kids (by then in their teens) had small
white spots on their teeth from too much fluoride. It was not until
1979 that doses were lowered (after a second report in 1978).
If you are one of the “kids” in this age group (born 1962 – 1978), you
might want to look closely to see if you fit the stereotype:
First check for cavities (fillings now). Put your finger on one of
your front teeth, and count back to tooth number 6. If that tooth, and
ONLY that tooth, has a filling, you’re our guy. It should be like that
in all four corners of your mouth. (That tooth is your first permanent
molar. The part with the filing, the chewing surface, forms just
BEFORE birth, so did not get the fluoride. The rest of that tooth, and
all your other permanent teeth, formed after the fluoride started, and
should have zero cavities assuming your parents did not get
forgetful.)
Second check for the white spots. They are also in a specific place.
Unfortunately it is in your very front teeth, on the leading edge. (If
the spots had been in back somewhere no one would have cared.)
Sometimes the spots are so faint you may have never noticed them. They
show better if a bright light shines on you from your side. The spots
fade somewhat with age, and wear off, so you might not see them now.
(If you have only the spots, but not the cavity pattern above, you may
have gotten them some other way. For example, fluoridated water if
mixed with powdered formula delivers too much fluoride and causes
similar spots.)
A third way to recognize the stereotype is a little trickier. The
enamel just above the leading edge of the front teeth should be
strikingly beautiful. One of the physical effects of fluoride on
developing teeth is enamel that has a surface texture about like the
inside of a seashell. By the time this enamel formed, you had grown up
a little, and the dose was perfect. The old doses only caused the
spots on the teeth that were forming right at birth, when the average
baby weighs 7 pounds. By age 6 months most babies double their weight.
After Dr. Peebles worked with Hoyt to make the infant vitamins with
fluoride, and after a long and distinguished medical career, he helped
found our small company, Prophy Research Corporation. (Prophy rhymes
with trophy; it is slang for prevention.) As our chairman, he can take
credit for the most recent “fluoride first”. In 2000 the OptiDose® web
site published the first recommendations to give children fluoride
doses based not on the usual age but on the body weight of the child.
This is still experimental, but theoretically we will someday see most
children with zero cavities and gorgeous model-quality teeth.
Dr. Peebles will be succeeded by W. Darby Glenn, MD. He and his wife
Frances (DDS) are better known for their work with prenatal fluoride.
We will do the best we can without Dr. Peebles. He left us strong and
healthy, just like all those nice teeth out there. As a small company,
we only get paid in stock. In his 14 years with us Dr. Peebles never
cashed in a penny of that stock. Thanks to a heck of a guy.
R H Draney
>
>Thomas C. Peebles of Port Charlotte, Fla., a decorated World War II
>veteran and a groundbreaking pediatrician who first isolated the measles
>virus, died July 8 at his home after a lengthy illness. He was 89.
Ironically, Dr Timothy J Measles, who first isolated the peebles virus, died
exactly six years ago to the day....r