Margaret Creighton Williams Margaret Creighton Williams, widow of Ralph B. Williams ’26, died on January 17, 2005, after a remarkably full 97 years. Margaret was the mother of Benjamin Jackson Williams ’54 of Beverly Farms, Sally Williams Casey (a Milton parent) of Greenwich, Connecticut, and the late Ralph B. Williams III ’51 and Albert C. Williams ’60. She
counted many Milton graduates among her nieces, nephews and grandchildren. Her affection for the School is evident in the Williams International Squash Courts, the hockey rink, as well as the many special funds she supported. Milton mourns the loss of a true friend and extends its deepest sympathy to the Williams family.
Paul V. Harper ’33 A Leader in the Uses of Nuclear Medicine Published: August 13, 2005 Dr. Paul V. Harper, who as a nuclear medicine pioneer led a University of Chicago team that developed an isotope widely used to pinpoint and diagnose cancers, died on July 15 at a hospice in Evanston, Ill. He was 89. The cause was pneumonia, a university spokesman said. Dr. Harper’s team conducted its research in the 1960s using technetium, a radioactive element discovered during the 1930’s. Working with another researcher, Katherine A. Lathrop, and others, Dr. Harper injected an isotope, technetium 99m, into a patient’s bloodstream and then traced its progress through the brain, the heart, the liver and other organs.
Richard R. Stewart ’49
Richard R. Stewart ’49 Volunteer Squash Coach for Seven Years Richard R. Stewart ’49 died June 22 in his home in Ipswich, Massachusetts, the youngest of three brothers, Charles P. Jr. ’41 and Donald McD. ’45. Their father was Charles P. Stewart, Sr. ’13. After Milton, Scotty, as he was known to his Milton friends, received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Trinity College in Hartford and a law degree from Boston University. He was the captain of the Trinity College squash team, an excellent hardball player who won three amateur national singles championships. A longtime resident of Southport, Connecticut, he
retired to Ipswich and, for the last seven years, volunteered to work with the Milton boys’ squash team, at first as an occasional coach and consultant, then for the most recent five years as the primary coach. His knowledge, coaching ability and success produced winning teams and ISL championships. One of his players writes, “His critiques and comments will be remembered and cherished by all the members of the squash team; we will remember the many good times we had with our coach, and mostly, our friend.” Francis D. Millet
The Chicago experiments brought about a method of scanning the isotope to create images of cancers and other tumors. In 1963, while using their method, Dr. Harper and his team performed the first detailed scan of the brain. Their technetium isotope remains in use and, with its relatively rapid disintegration, has proved to be a safer diagnostic tool than isotopes developed earlier. Trained as a surgeon, Dr. Harper was keenly interested in nuclear medicine’s therapeutic as well as diagnostic aspects. In the 1950s, he surgically implanted radioactive materials in patients to treat tumors of the pancreas that were otherwise inoperable, initially by inserting radium needles. He later implanted lengths of fine plastic tubing filled with another radioactive isotope, iodine 131, to shrink or even destroy cancers and tumors. Dr. Robert Beck, an emeritus professor of radiology at Chicago, said Dr. Harper’s pathbreaking experiments had produced “valuable methods for irradiating the pancreas and a variety of organs, and those
methods are used today for treating the pituitary gland as well as the prostate.” In 1961, working with Ms. Lathrop, Dr. Harper also devised an efficient method of producing iodine 125, an isotope considered significantly safer than iodine 131. Iodine 125, used to scan the liver and the thyroid, remains a common medical tool, Dr. Beck said. Paul Vincent Harper was born in Chicago, the grandson of William Rainey Harper, founding president of the University of Chicago. Paul Harper attended Milton Academy and received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard. After training in surgery at Chicago, he became an assistant professor of surgery there in 1953 and was named professor in 1960. In 1963, he was made an associate director of Argonne Cancer Research Hospital, at the university. Dr. Harper studied the effects of doses of radiation, a discipline known as dosimetry, and was appointed to the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements in 1975. He received a presidential citation from the Society of Nuclear Medicine in 1986. His wife, the former Phyllis Sweetser, died in 1993. They made their home in Glencoe, Ill., a Chicago suburb. He is survived by two sons, David, of Pennington, N.J., and William, of Hartford; two daughters, Stephanie Harper of Glencoe and Cynthia Harper of Chicago; a sister, Jane Overton of Chicago; a close friend, Syble Paden of Evanston; and two grandchildren. © Copyright 2005, The New York
Times. Reprinted with permission.
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Milton Magazine