Armstrong – Table of Contents

Sedgwick award. Other associates or contemporaries of Armstrong who worked at NIH
and who received the Sedgwick award included Milton J. Rosenau, Wade Hampton Frost
and Rollo Eugene Dyer (4).
Charles Armstrong received his award Tuesday evening, October 14, 1941, at the
opening general session of the 70th Annual Meeting of the APHA in Atlantic City, New
Jersey. On September 20, 1941, Armstrong had received a confidential letter from Dr.
Thomas Parran, the Surgeon General, who was also Chairman of the APHA Awards
Committee, saying that he had been selected as the recipient of the 1941 Award (5). On
September 23, 1941 Armstrong replied (6) that he was keenly appreciative of the
Committee on Awards for selecting him. Armstrong said that the honor was especially
felt in view of the distinguished individuals who had received this medal in the past. The
Committee on Awards was composed of the last five living recipients of the Award who
selected a new recipient from among the nominations they had received.
Dr. Parran, as Chairman of the Committee, presented the Award (7) with the
inclusion of these laudatory remarks: “To a greater or lesser degree we are familiar with
research work in the field of human diseases but comparatively few of the workers in this
field are personally known to any one of us. It has been my good fortune to know a few
of these men well, and one in particular I have known for almost a quarter of a century
[EAB – since 1916 when Armstrong received his commission in the USPHS]. I have
followed his outstanding work on botulism, tetanus, dengue, influenza, psittacosis,
encephalitis, choriomeningitis and poliomyelitis. He is unique in that he has made a
distinct contribution to our knowledge of every disease with which he has worked. I
know his adequate preparation, his careful procedure and his rigid criticism of his own