Armstrong – Table of Contents

probably the most favorite.). We shook hands, and he told me immediately that I could
start working at the Laboratory on August 1, 1948. He said that official notice would be
sent to me around June 1948. He advised me in the interim to apply for a Public Health
Service Post-Doctoral Fellowship since that would be my official position at NIH. I was
one of the first persons in that category after World War II.
After this initial inspirational exposure to Dr. Armstrong, I returned quite
exhilarated to the drudgery of my internship and the remainder of a snow-laden winter in
Boston. However, as spring approached without further communication from NIH, I
became apprehensive about the status of the oral commitment to me. Friends and family
suggested that I should “protect my flank” in order not to be left dangling without an
appointment on June 30, 1948 at the end of my internship. Hearing about some good
residencies still available locally, and heeding the above well-intentioned advice, I
applied for an assistant residency in internal medicine at the Veterans Administration
Hospital (then in Framingham, Massachusetts) on the medical service of Dr. Maurice B.
Strauss, the prominent nephrologist. My concerns were entirely without foundation. In
early June 1948, true to his word, Dr. Armstrong sent me a telegram instructing me to
report to my assignment August 1, 1948. The following day I received a telephone call
from Dr. Strauss offering me the assistant residency for which I had applied. I thanked
him for his kind offer but explained that I had made other arrangements more in keeping
with my basic interests.
In my years in and out of the preparation for and the practice of internal medicine
and infectious diseases, I have encountered many brilliant and talented faculty members,
investigators, clinical colleagues and administrators some of who became role models for