Dr Martin: How are we doing in 2000?

Some 70 years ago, Dr Hayes Martin emerged front stage on the medical scene . He was more than we could write about or read in an obituary. He was a fo rce-an energetic presence. I have asked myself many times why. Because I ne ver met him, I can only speculate, based on what I have heard from those wh o knew him and what I have read about him, while at the same time trying to visualize his influence in the milieu of his times. According to televisio n news anchor Tom Brokaw, who wrote a book by this title, he belonged to Th e Greatest Generation ever. He practiced medicine during times of great str ess and turmoil throughout the world. Was he special because his appearance on the oncology scene was at the right place and at the right time! Was th e practice of head and neck surgery in such a state of disarray before his time? Did he bring to it a sense of discipline? Was he unique because he wa s a zealot, a perfectionist, and a visionary? Did he intimidate and inspire ? All these things contributed to the role he played, but I think he is rem embered today and always will have an honored place in our history because he turned the ship of head and neck cancer care and charted a new course fo r us. He was to the practice of head and neck surgery what Babe Ruth was to baseball.