A perspective on the early days of pediatric surgery.

I N MY WILDEST DREAMS as a surgical trainee, I never thought I would be in on the founding of the surgical section of the American Academy of Pediatrics. let alone be present in its 50th anniversary year. At the time the surgical section was founded, I was 3 1 years old and actually had been practicing pediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for almost a year. I had been designated as its Surgeon-inChief, but was awaiting the final action of the Board of Trustees. The previous year I had spent as a fellow at the Children’s Hospital in Boston at what was a rather tumultuous time. Dr Ladd had retired, Dr Gross had not been appointed yet and the hostility between those two venerable fathers of pediatric surgery in America had not been reconciled.