Derrick Tilton Vail.

Derrick Tilton Vail was born in Cincin­ nati, Ohio, May 15, 1898, the son of Der­ rick and Delia Harriss Vail and the middle of five children. During his adolescent years he resented this position as his two older brothers continually ganged up to make him babysit for the two younger sisters (fig. 1). He went to a very small private school where he was a member of every athletic team—an accomplishment he modestly at­ tributes to the smallness of the school rather than to his athletic prowess. At the age of eight he began violin lessons and instruc­ tion in wood carving, two hobbies which are still a happy part of his extra-academic life. His father was a distinguished ophthal­ mologist, and his older brother, Harriss, an equally distinguished otolaryngologist. With this medical background, he had always wanted to go into medicine. He entered Yale University in the fall of 1915. His activities began quite quickly. He became a member of the freshman mandolin club and the freshman crew, the latter being clobbered by Harvard. His sophomore year found him joining the Zeta Psi fraternity and also taking part in the productions of the Yale Dramatic Club. He was once overhead minimizing his participation in the latter by saying: "I think I carried a spear in a large pageant." As a junior, he was tapped for Elihu, a