The formative years of the American Osler Society.

• The American Osler Society held its first formal meeting in 1971, an event that will represent not the beginning of this essay but, rather, almost the end. Though some portion of the founding story has been told by Alfred Henderson, and again by Henderson and McGovern, I believe that there is a duty for any society – particularly an historical society – to record its own origins as thoroughly as possible while the principals remain on the scene. This essay is based on my personal involvement in the founding and the early years, on interviews or correspondence with other founders, and on examination of the limited published material. The contributions of the two primary movers, John P. McGovern and Alfred Henderson, will be documented. Some information is available about the process whereby the original contingent of Oslerians was selected, the constitution created, and the meeting arrangements made. Zeitgeist is defined as a pattern of thought or feeling characteristic of a particular period or time. In the 1960s, the North American medical zeitgeist was such that the desirability and need for an international Osler society expressed itself in several minds more or less simultaneously. One factor helping to fashion this Zeitgeist was increasing concern among thoughtful physicians – and non-physicians – about the growing sterility induced by the prevailing emphasis on science in medical education. The concern was not a reaction against science but rather with the apparently concomitant loss of humanity and humaneness in our profession. Technology threatened to substitute for caring. A humanist rolemodel was needed, and who better than William Osler? The two minds most productively tuned to the desirability of creating a society were those of John P. McGovern, in Houston, Texas, and Alfred Henderson, in Washington, DC. Neither man remembers, now, exactly when the initiating thought began to flower in his mind. McGovern recalls discussing the topic with Grant Taylor while both men were attending scientific meetings in the mid-1960s. Henderson, in 1966 and 1967, “...brought the subject up to a number of Oslerians, including Wilburt C. Davison and Wilder Penfield.... All were of one accord – that such an organization was, indeed, overdue.” Dean Davison played a pivotal role here. He was Jack McGovern’s professional mentor and hero, and close friend, and Jack had already discussed his idea with Davison. Thus when Henderson called, Davison promptly suggested a meeting between the two men. McGovern had occasion to attend a medical meeting in Washington in Fig. 1: John P. McGovern and Alfred Henderson, Houston, Texas, August 1970: planning the American Osler Society.