Past Presidents

Elmer E. Schultz
1951, St. Louis

Elmer C. Schultz, "Dutch" as he was known to his many friends, was born and raised in Michigan. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan, and took part of his neurosurgical training at the Henry Ford Hospital. During World War I ...
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Hendrik J. Svien
1952, Chicago

Hendrik (Hank) Julius Svien was born in a farming community near Rochester, Minnesota, of Norwegian parentage in 1911. He entered St. Olaf College and graduated cum laude in chemistry. He later undertook graduate work in chemistry at the Massachusett ...
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Nathaniel R. Hollister
1953, New Orleans

Nathaniel Roger Hollister was born on May 18, 1915. He was the third son of Robert R. Hollister, M.D. and Susan Holdredge. Dr. Hollister stood in considerable awe of his physician father and seldom directly opposed his wishes. His father discouraged ...
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James R. Gay
1954, New York

Dr. James Rowland Gay was born in Dunmore, Pennsylvania on June 23, 1914. He received a B.S. degree from The Virginia Polytechnic and State University (1935), and an M.D. degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (1939). He served a ...
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Donald B. Sweeney
1955, Los Angeles

Dr. Donald B. Sweeney was born on March 17, 1917 in Mason City, Iowa. After receiving a B.S. degree from the University of Iowa he graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City in 1940. His house officer training was at Massa ...
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Bland W. Cannon
1956, Chicago

Bland Wilson Cannon was born on April 4, 1920 in Brownsville, Tennessee. He attended Rhodes College and received a B.S. degree in 1941. He then attended Northwestern University Graduate School and had a fellowship at the Institute of Neurology in 194 ...
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Frederick C. Rehfeldt
1957, Washington DC

Frederick C. Rehfeldt was born in Jackson, Mississippi on July 1, 1915. His father was a physician. He attended the Millsap College between 1932 and 1936. He graduated from the Tulane University School of Medicine in 1941. His house officer training ...
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Raymond K. Thompson
1958, San Francisco

Raymond Kief Thompson was born in Vermillion, South Dakota on June 16, 1916, the son of a college professor. His early years were spent in New York City. With his family he moved to Maryland in 1920 and it has been his home ever since. With the untim ...
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Philip D. Gordy
1959, Miami

Dr. Gordy received his M.D. from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1943. Following this he served an internship and assistant residency in surgery at The New York Hospital. During this period he came under the influence of Dr. Bronson Ray. ...
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Thomas M. Marshall
1960, Chicago

Thomas M. Marshall was born in 1917 to Mr. and Mrs. Wiley Marshall in Frankfort, Kentucky where his father was an attorney. During early school years, an interest in music was pursued on the French horn and by playing trumpet in several dance bands. ...
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Martin P. Sayers
1961, New York

A Middle Westerner and a graduate of The Ohio State University, Dr. Sayers became, before entering medical school, a close friend of Harry E. LeFever, professor ofneurosurgery at the Ohio State University. Through Dr. LeFever's influence he chose Phi ...
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Richard L. DeSaussure
1962, Houston

1917-2008 On September 24, 2008, while the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) held its 58th Annual meeting, the CNS and the world neurosurgical community lost one of its pillars, Richard L. DeSaussure, Jr. Dr. DeSaussure was one of th ...
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A. Roy Tyrer, Jr.
1963, Denver

1918-2010 On November 22, 2010, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) lost a Founding Father, and the neurosurgical community one of its most eminent practitioners. Mary Louise and Austin Roy Tyrer gave birth to Austin Roy, Jr. on ...
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Edward C. Weiford
1964, Miami

Dr. Edward Clinton Weiford was born on July 4, 1918 in Kansas City, Missouri. He graduated from Westport High School in 1935 with varsity letters as quarterback in football, forward in basketball, and state medalist in the half-mile. He was elected t ...
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Gordon van den Noort
1965, Chicago

Gordon van den Noort was born May 8, 1922 in Buitenzorg, Java, Netherlands East Indies, of American parents. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated in November, 1943 with a B.A. degree. He then attended the Temple University School of Medicine a ...
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William H. Mosberg, Jr.
1966, San Juan

William H. Mosberg, Jr. was born on August 22, 1920 in Baltimore, Maryland. His early education was in Baltimore public schools. He graduated from high school in 1936 at the age of 15, in the midst of the Depression and there was no money for college ...
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John R. Russell
1967, San Francisco

John R. Russell was born March 17, 1922 in Bloomington, Indiana. The delivery of five babies that day swamped the medical staff of the town's tiny hospital, so John's father was pressed into service to administer chloroform to his parturient wife. Jo ...
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John Shillito, Jr.
1968, Toronto

John Shillito was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1922. He moved to Boston in 1929 and his schooling from there on was in that area. He was a freshman at Harvard College when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Already in the Naval R.O.T.C., he continued ...
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Paul C. Sharkey
1969, Boston

Dr. Sharkey was born in Washington, D.C. on May 10, 1924. He lived in several Northeastern cities where his father was a hospital administrator. His family moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1936. During World War II he was a pilot in the United States Air ...
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John M. Thompson
1970, St. Louis

John Morgan Thompson was born in Tampa, Florida on February 14, 1924. He attended the University of Florida and received a B.S. degree at Tulane University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He attended The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where ...
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Donald F. Dohn
1971, Miami

Donald F. Dohn was born on August 16, 1925 in Buffalo, New York. He attended the Kenmore public schools in Tonawanda, New York. He received his premedical education at the University of Buffalo in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from the University o ...
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John N. Meagher
1972, Denver

Dr. John N. Meagher was born on December 23, 1925 in Springfield, Ohio. He attended public schools and then entered Kenyon College. He served a 36-month tour in the United States Navy in the Aviation Division. He then returned to Kenyon College and w ...
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Bernard S. Patrick
1973, Honolulu

Bernard Sutherland Patrick was born in Booneville, Mississippi, February 16, 1927. He grew up in Corinth, Mississippi and was a fourth generation physician in his family. His undergraduate studies were at Tulane University and the University of Missi ...
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George T. Tindall
1974, Vancouver

George T. Tindall has made significant contributions to American neurosurgery. He is well respected for his surgical skills, research, publications, and leadership in neurosurgical organizations. His name is synonymous with pituitary surgery. His car ...
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James T. Robertson
1975, Atlanta

James T. Robertson was born April 5, 1931 in McComb, Mississippi. He is married to Valeria Brower Robertson and they have six children and four grandchildren. The youngest son, Dan, is in neurosurgical training with Dr. Grossman in Houston. The other ...
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Robert G. Ojemann
1976, New Orleans

Dr. Robert G. Ojemann was born in Iowa City, Iowa on May 5, 1931. He graduated from the University of Iowa with highest distinction and from its medical school in 1955 where he ranked first in his class. Shortly after graduation he married Jean Munso ...
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Bruce F. Sorensen
1977, San Francisco

Bruce Farrell Sorensen was born January 25, 1931 in Aurora, Illinois, the second son of Alton H. Sorensen, Sr. and Ruth Bergquist. His father had just completed a master's degree in structural engineering at the University of Illinois when Bruce was ...
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Albert L. Rhoton, Jr.
1978, Washington DC

Albert L. Rhoton, Jr. was born November 18, 1932, in Parvin, Kentucky. He graduated from Washington University School of Medicine, cure laude, with the highest academic standing in the class of 1959. As a medical student, he did research on the trige ...
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David L. Kelly, Jr.
1979, Las Vegas

David L. Kelly, Jr., was born in Elkin, North Carolina, April 25, 1935. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina. He was elected to Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated from the University of North Carolina ...
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Robert H. Wilkins
1980, Houston

Robert H. Wilkins was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on August 18, 1934. He received the B.S. degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1955 and the M.D. degree from the same institution in 1959. He received his postgraduate training at the Duke ...
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J. Fletcher Lee
1981, Los Angeles

James Fletcher Lee, the second of three sons, was born in the historical southern city of Murfreesboro, Tennessee in 1934, where his parents, Jack and Mary Lee, raised him, along with his two brothers, in the Methodist religion. He and Mrs. Lee insti ...
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Donald H. Stewart, Jr.
1982, Toronto

Donald H. Stewart, Jr. was born a "Tar Heel" at Duke University Hospital on December 8, 1934. His family lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but there was no hospital there at the time. His father, a Presbyterian minister, had immigrated to this co ...
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John M. Tew, Jr.
1983, Chicago

Dr. John M. Tew, Jr. began his education at Wake Forest University and the Bowman-Gray School of Medicine. Completing his early surgical training at Cornell Medical Center and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Dr. Tew spent 2 years as a clinical associate ...
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Edward R. Laws, Jr.
1984, New York

Edward R. Laws was born on April 29, 1938 in New York City, the son of a physician. He left New York in 1955 to attend Princeton University where he received an A.B. with honors in the Special Program in American Civilization. He attended The Johns H ...
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Robert A. Ratcheson
1985, Honolulu

Robert A. Ratcheson was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 24, 1940. He attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and received a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1962 and a M.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine in 19 ...
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Joseph C. Maroon
1986, New Orleans

Dr. Maroon was born in Bridgeport, Ohio, a small coal mining community in the upper Ohio Valley. During his early school years, he excelled in both scholastics and athletics. As a member of the All-Ohio football and baseball first teams, he also was ...
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Donald O. Quest
1987, Baltimore

Donald O. Quest was born on November 20, 1939 in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from the Riverview Gardens High School in St. Louis in 1957. He graduated with honors from the University of Illinois with a B.S. degree in mathematics in 1961. He ser ...
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Christopher B. Shields
1988, Seattle

Dr. Shields was the first Canadian president of the Congress. He was born in Schumacher, a small gold-mining town in northern Ontario where he lived until finishing secondary school. He graduated from medical school at the University of Toronto in 19 ...
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J. Michael McWhorter
1989, Atlanta

J. Michael McWhorter was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on November 8, 1941. He was awarded a B.S. degree from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg in 1963. He graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in 1968 ...
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Hal L. Hankinson
1990, Los Angeles

Hal Lomax Hankinson was born in Tyler, Texas, on December 23, 1942. His father was in the oil business and ultimately the family moved to Houston where Hal attended high school. He became interested in the biological sciences while attending the Univ ...
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Michael Salcman
1991, Orlando

Michael Salcman was born in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia and came to the United States in 1948. After attending public schools in New York, he entered the 6-year Combined Program in Liberal Arts and Medical Education at Boston University and served a surgi ...
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William F. Chandler
1992, Washington DC

Dr. William Chandler is the Richard C. Schneider Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of Michigan. He is co-director of the Multidisciplinary Pituitary and Neuroendocrine Clinic at the University of Michigan and Professor of Internal M ...
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Arthur L. Day
1993, Vancouver

Arthur L. Day, MD, Professor, Co-Chairman , and Residency Program Director of the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Florida, graduated from Louisiana State University Medical School in 1972 and completed his neurological surgery ...
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Richard Roski
1994, Chicago

Dick and Debbie Roski live in Davenport, Iowa. They both grew up outside Cleveland, Ohio and met at Cleveland Metropolitan Hospital where Debbie worked as an R.N. and Dick was in his neurosurgical residency at Case Western Reserve University. They ma ...
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Ralph G. Dacey, Jr.
1995, San Francisco

Ralph went to Harvard College, and obtained his MD degree from the University of Virginia in 1974. After training in internal medicine, he returned to the University of Virginia for his surgical and neurosurgical training. In 1983 he became an Assist ...
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Stephen J. Haines
1996, Montreal

Stephen J. Haines was born on September 4, 1949 at the Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington, Vermont, the son of Gerald and Frances Haines. His father was spending a year in neurosurgical training at the Montreal Neurological Institute at that time. ...
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Marc R. Mayberg
1997, New Orleans

Marc Mayberg grew up in Edina, Minnesota. He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1974, where he played varsity football. During medical school at Mayo, he worked in the laboratory of Thoralf Sundt. Dr. Mayberg completed his resi ...
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William A. Friedman
1998, Seattle

Dr. William Alan Friedman was born in Dayton, Ohio on April 25,1953. He attended high school in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated in 1970 as a National Merit Scholar and attended Oberlin College. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa before moving on to the ...
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H. Hunt Batjer
1999, Boston

Hunt Batjer was born in 1951 in Burlington, Vermont to parents Henry Huntington Batjer and Eleanor Thomas Batjer. During the Korean conflict, Mr. Batjer returned to naval service as a Lieutenant Commander. Hunt and his mother moved briefly to Califor ...
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Daniel L. Barrow
2000, San Antonio

Daniel Louis Barrow was raised in west central Illinois, the first of four children of Dr. and Mrs. Warren C. Barrow. During high school, Dan was active in varsity sports including football, golf and track. He was named an Illinois State Scholar an ...
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Issam A. Awad
2001, San Diego

Issam Abdullah Awad was born in Beirut, Lebanon September 23, 1956 to a family with roots tracing to the 15th century. His childhood was shattered by his father’s passing when he was 11 years old but he was raised by a devoted mother and siblings wit ...
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Stephen M. Papadopoulos
2002, Philadelphia

Dr. Papadopoulos was born in 1956, the son of a Greek immigrant. His father arrived in the United States shortly after the war to attend college on an educational scholarship granted from the Greek government. While in college his father met his mo ...
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Mark N. Hadley
2003, Denver

Mark Norman Hadley, the 53rd President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, was born and raised in Napa, California, one of three children of Jack and Marie Hadley. Mark was active in sports, scholastics, and student government through high sch ...
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Vincent Traynelis
2004, San Francisco

Vincent C. Traynelis is Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Iowa. Dr. Traynelis has a significant research interest in cervical spinal kinematics and the biomechanics of cervical spinal instrumentation and motion sparing reconstructive spi ...
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Nelson M. Oyesiku
2005, Boston

Dr. Oyesiku was born in Nigeria where he graduated from St. Gregory’s College and received his medical degree from the University of Ibadan. He then attended the University of London, UK as a Commonwealth Scholar where he obtained a Masters of Scienc ...
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Richard G. Ellenbogen
2006, Chicago

Richard G. Ellenbogen is Professor and Chairman of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He holds the Theodore S. Roberts Endowed Chair in Neurological Surgery, is the Chief of Neurological Surgery at Harborview Med ...
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Douglas S. Kondziolka
2007, San Diego

Douglas Kondziolka is proud to serve the Congress of Neurological Surgeons as its 57th President. He has served on the Executive Committee of the CNS in numerous roles over the past decade including Chair of the Fellowships and Publications Committee ...
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Anthony L. Asher
2008, Orlando

Anthony L. Asher, MD, FACS, received his BA degree in Religion and Biology from Kalamazoo College in 1982. He graduated from Wayne State University Medical School in 1987 and while there was named to the original class of Howard Hughes Medical Instit ...
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P. David Adelson
2009, New Orleans

P.David Adelson, MD, FACS, FAAP, is honored to serve the Congress of Neurological Surgeons as its President for 2008- 2009. He has served on the Executive Committee of the CNS in numerous roles since 1997, including Member-at-Large, Chair of the Byla ...
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Gerald E. Rodts, Jr
2010, San Francisco

Gerald E. (Rusty) Rodts, Jr., MD, is honored to serve as President of the CNS. He is Professor of Neurological Surgery and Orthopedic Surgery at Emory University, School of Medicine, where he has worked since 1994. Dr. Rodts majored in Biology at ...
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Christopher C. Getch
2011, Washington, DC

Christopher Caldwell Getch is honored to serve as the President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. Dr. Getch joined Dr. H. Hunt Batjer on the Northwestern University faculty in 1996 in the Department of Neurosurgery. He holds the academic rank ...
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