Dr. Charles G. Child III came to Michigan in Jan
uary 1959, to fill one of the most responsible and de
manding positions on the campus—chairmanship of 
the Medical School's Department of Surgery.


From a tiny, book-lined office on the fourth floor of 
the Outpatient Building, he guides numerous highly-
specialized personnel and is responsible for a vast
 array of expensive equipment.


In carrying out his department's threefold mission 
of patient-care, education and research, he heads one 
of the largest staffs in the University Medical Center. 
He assumes general administrative responsibility for 
the operative and teaching activities of 30 full-time
 members of the professional staff—all with the rank
 of instructor or higher. These in turn supervise the
 continuing education of more than 100 surgical in
terns and residents. The department's many activi
ties are supported by a staff of some 50 secretaries,
 technicians and dieners.


Thousands of operations, many of them critical,
 are performed annually in the University Hospital.
 Added to extensive responsibility for patient-care, 
the Department of Surgery supports research labora
tories devoted to liver disease, salt and water metab
olism, nutrition, cardiac surgery and homografts as 
well as to other problems of current surgical concern.


In these laboratories Michigan not only keeps 
abreast of new developments but also contributes im
portantly to new scientific knowledge in the care of 
surgical patients.


Nearly $1,000,000 is spent annually in support of 
the department's programs in basic and clinical re
search. Michigan researchers have taken an active
 role in developing some of the medical profession's
 most important surgical advances, particularly in the 
areas of cardiovascular ailments, cancer, localization 
of brain tumors and use of artificial kidneys. To pro
mote dissemination of new surgical knowledge, the
 department participates widely in postgraduate edu
cation and takes an active part in conferences of
 state, national and international surgical societies.


As a major unit of The University of Michigan Medical School, the Department of Surgery participates in the education of medical students in surgical
 diagnosis and treatment. All students serve four
 months as clinical clerks on the wards and in the
 laboratories of the department. Throughout their 
years in medical school, a number of students actively 
pursue research interests in the department's basic 
science laboratories.


One of Dr. Child's chief academic concerns is the 
declining ratio of doctors to population, a problem, 
which also threatens a shortage of surgical teachers 
in American medical colleges. "Surgery," says Dr.
 Child, "shares with medicine as a whole the necessity 
of supplying additional professional manpower for 
the nation's growing population."


Born in 1908 in New York City, where his father—
also a doctor—practiced obstetrics and gynecology, 
Dr. Child received his formal medical education at
 Cornell (MD'34). He interned in surgery and took 
advanced surgical training at The New York Hos
pital—Cornell Medical Center from 1934 to 1942.


During World War II he was a lieutenant in the 
Navy, serving in the Pacific aboard the aircraft car
rier USS Bennington. Later he was chief of surgery
 at the U. S. Naval Hospital at Pensacola, Fla.


After the war he was an associate professor of sur
gery at Cornell University Medical College and, from
1953 to 1958, professor of surgery and chairman of 
the Department of Surgery at the Tufts University 
School of Medicine.


Dr. Child is a Fellow of the American College of
 Surgeons and a member of the American Medical 
Association, the American Surgical Association, the
 Society of Clinical Surgery and the Society of Uni
versity Surgeons. He is editor of The Journal of Sur
gical Research. In 1959 he was chairman of the Insti
tute on Clinical Teaching of the Association of Amer
ican Medical Colleges.