Dr. Carl Weller, who assumed chairmanship of the department following the death of Dr. Aldred Warthin in June of 1931, directed departmental affairs until his retirement in 1956, at which time Dr. A. James French was made Acting Chairman.
In October of 1956, French was formally appointed as chairman, and shortly thereafter, in 1957, the department moved into its new and spacious quarters in Medical Science I. Dr. Weller died shortly after retirement, and in 1956 the Galens Society established the Weller Award as a memorial to him.
With the transfer to the Medical Center area, activities and responsibilities of the department were considerably expanded. Operation of the Hospital’s blood bank and the newly consolidated clinical laboratories, as well as direction of the instructional courses for laboratory technicians, was placed in the hands of Dr. French.
The departmental library, a memorial to Drs. Warthin and Weller, became the repository for gifts of historical volumes from both of these individuals as well as from Professor Ruth Wanstrom, who retired from the faculty in 1958.
The new quarters contained long-needed student laboratories, as well as facilities for the research activities of the professional staff. The Pathology Endowment financed the new research facilities, to the extent of $150,000
Fund, which had been accumulated during Dr. Weller's administration from consultation fees for services to other institutions and individual physicians.
Upon the retirement of Dr. Constantine Sharenberg, Professor of Neuropathology in 1962, Dr. Samuel Hicks of Boston moved his research activities to this Medical School, where he was appointed Professor of Pathology.
The department has been actively engaged in research in a number of directions, including the study of automobile traffic fatalities.
Under Dr. Robert Hendrix, the University of Michigan clinical investigation of cancer, begun by the medical staff of the institution in 1936, has been ably pursued.
Codified, detailed data, from records of 53,000 malignant neoplasms encountered in this Medical Center, have been assiduously accumulated and made available to the National Cancer Institute for consolidation with similar data from other institutions.
Fred J. Hodges
The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey Supplement, Pages 199, 200
