Oral history interview of Michael DeBakey by Donald A. Schanche (tape 2)

Oral history interview of Michael DeBakey by Donald A. Schanche (tape 2)

Contributor(s):
Schanche, Donald A. (Interviewer)
DeBakey, Michael E. (Michael Ellis), 1908-2008
Publication:
Produced: 5 February 1972
Language(s):
English
Format:
Text
Genre(s):
Archival Materials
Oral histories (document genres)
Interviews
Transcripts
Abstract:
In 1972, journalist Donald A. Schanche (1926-1994) conducted a series of interviews with DeBakey as part of his research for a planned biography. Schanche worked on the project for several years, but the book was never completed. Several letters in the NLM DeBakey Papers indicate that Schanche, though a talented, experienced writer and editor, had difficulty drafting DeBakey's life story because of the sheer number and variety of DeBakey's interests and achievements. In 1976, Schanche joined the Foreign Division of the Los Angeles Times, and moved to Cairo. It appears that neither he nor DeBakey were able to follow up with the biography.. Topics covered in this interview include: Learning responsibility and self-discipline from his father's strict discipline; his mother as a role model for compassion, tolerance, and Christian charity; visiting the local orphanage with donations; his father's intolerance of laziness and vices such as smoking and drinking; experience with an alcoholic pharmacist who worked at the family pharmacy, and finding him after he committed suicide; gardening; consciousness of racial injustice; segregation at Charity Hospital in New Orleans; integration of wards at Methodist Hospital in Houston; his father's experience of coming to America, settling in Lake Charles, and building several businesses; DeBakey's early affinity for reading and for mechanical work, including automobiles; undergraduate experience at Tulane; choosing a medical career; medical school curriculum at Tulane and reflections on effective teaching techniques; improving medical education.
Copyright:
This item may be under copyright protection; contact the copyright owner for permission before re-use.
Extent:
103 pages
NLM Unique ID:
101743405X309 (See in Profiles in Science)
Profiles in Science ID:
FJBBTF
Permanent Link:
http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101743405X309
Archival Collection:
The Michael E. DeBakey Papers (Profiles in Science)