David Dahlin

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David Carl Dahlin, Jr., M.D.
Bronze star
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine & pathology

David Carl Dahlin, Jr. (September 3, 1917 – September 12, 2003) was a North American

musculoskeletal
system—especially the bones, but was also an experienced and skilled general surgical pathologist.

Early life and education

Dahlin was born in September 1917 to David and Rose Dahlin in Beresford, South Dakota. They were farmers who had little cash income; therefore, young David Jr.-- and his three brothers and sisters—learned frugality and the virtues of hard work from an early age.[1] As a teen, an entire summer of plowing sixty-five acres with a horse-drawn plow led him to conclude that another vocation was a wise choice. Accordingly, despite the fact that the Dahlin family had virtually no money, David enrolled in the

B.Sc. degree in 1938.[1]

Medical education

Dahlin was accepted to

U.S. Army Air Corps
(USAAC) in 1942.

Military service

Once commissioned as an officer in the USAAC Medical Corps, Dahlin was accepted into the training program for flight surgeons. He spent his first service year in the training command in Texas and North Carolina, and was then posted to

European Theater of Operations
in World War II throughout the rest of his life.

  • Bronze Star Medal
    Bronze Star Medal
  • European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
    European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
  • World War II Victory Medal
    World War II Victory Medal

Residency and early career

Dahlin returned to Rochester in November 1945, intending to begin residency training in general surgery. However, because of scheduling issues, he was assigned first to the surgical pathology laboratory at St. Mary's Hospital, under the tutelage of Dr. Malcolm Dockerty.[1] Dockerty was a dynamic and gifted pathologist, whose teaching captured Dahlin's interest and loyalty. Hence, he switched his training emphasis to anatomic and clinical pathology, completing residency in 1948 and publishing his master's degree thesis (at the University of Minnesota) on systemic amyloidosis.[3] He was then appointed to the staff of the Mayo Clinic as a consultant in pathology.

Rapidly, Dahlin became a skilled general surgical pathologist in the mold of Dockerty, but began to develop special expertise in neoplasms of the skeletal system. No one had previously studied such lesions systematically at the Mayo Clinic; indeed worldwide knowledge on that topic was then quite limited. Working with Mark Coventry, an

oncologist, Dahlin cataloged the clinical, radiographic, macroscopic, and histopathologic features of virtually all bone tumors in the Mayo archive. That undertaking eventuated in the publication of a book entitled "Bone Tumors: General Aspects and an Analysis of 2276 Cases," in 1957.[4] That text has subsequently gone through 5 additional editions and is still in print under the editorship of Krishnan K. Unni and Carrie Inwards.[5]

Later career and honors

The publication of his book and other writings on bone tumors

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Mayo Clinic, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Dahlin also was the first physician inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame.[7]
He retired from active practice in 1983, but continued to serve as an informal consultant for some years thereafter.

Personal life

Dahlin married Helen DePass in October 1941. She died of

gallbladder carcinoma in March 1990 at the age of 69.[8] The couple had three children together—Brian, Eric (1948-2005), and Martha. Dahlin was an avid sportsman, enjoying hunting, fishing, canoeing, camping, and handball.[1]

Death

In July 2003, Dahlin was interviewed for the U.S. Veterans History Project.[2] Two months later, he contracted viral encephalitis while on a camping trip at the age of 86 and died of that illness on September 12, 2003. He is buried next to his wife and son in Rochester, Minnesota.[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Woolner LB: Surgical pathology at the Mayo Clinic. In: Rosai J (Ed.): Guiding the Surgeon's Hand. Washington, D.C.: American Registry of Pathology, 1997, pp. 166-168.
  2. ^ a b Veterans History Project-- David C. Dahlin, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.12663 [Accessed 6-1-2009]
  3. ^ Dahlin DC: Primary amyloidosis, with report of six cases. Am J Pathol 1949; 25: 105-123.
  4. ^ Dahlin DC: Bone Tumors: General Aspects and an Analysis of 2276 Cases, C.C. Thomas, Springfield, IL, 1957.
  5. ^ Unni KK, Inwards CY (Eds): Dahlin's Bone Tumors: General Aspects and Data on 10,165 Cases, Lippincott-Williams & Wilkins, 2009.
  6. ISSN 1930-2398
    .
  7. ^ Unni KK: David C. Dahlin [obituary]. Skeletal Radiol 2004; 33: 117-118.
  8. ^ http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=MNDeaths&gsfn=%2cHELEN&gsln=%2cDAHLIN&gspl=1%2cAny+Locality&submit=Search%2cSearch&prox=1%2c1&gss=angs-d&o_iid=33216&o_lid=33216&pcat=34&fh=5&h=516034&recoff=1+2, Accessed 10-4-2009.
  9. ^ Ibid.

External links

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