If we have been blessed, we have all encountered that rare individual whose fund of knowledge, talents, and human qualities make him an admirable teacher.  As rare as such individuals are, it is even a more rare occurrence that such an individual is honored with a society as his namesake.  Even then, he is usually honored posthumously by students and associates.  Not so with Dr. Arthur Purdy Stout.  Dr. Stout gathered about him a coterie of loyal students and associates who enjoyed his company and expertise while he was alive and that same group was determined to carry on the love for scholarship and teaching in honor of Dr. Stout after his death.

The organization named in Dr. Stout's honor now has over 400 members from different parts of the United States and throughout the world.  But no matter where the members reside, by joining this Society, they have publicly acknowledged their desire to carry on in that same spirit of academic excellence which that first group of founders wanted to honor in Dr. Stout.

Dr. Lee, our Archivist, pointed out that Dr. Stout was ahead of his time in many ways.  For example, Dr. Stout accepted women in the profession at a time when they were not necessarily made to feel welcome.  Among all the accolades a man might receive, the statement "he was always kind to women" reveals something of character that lists of awards and bibliographies cannot.

For those who are visiting our site and are unfamiliar with Dr. Stout, we are reprinting an article that gives a brief biography of the Society's namesake.  This was written close to the time of Dr. Stout's "retirement."  We put that in quotes because from all reports, Dr. Stout went on to be more active after retirement than before.  The article was written by Virginia Kneeland Frantz, one of Dr. Stout's students and associates which can be viewed here.

We are including one of Dr. Stout's non-technical articles for your review.  While there are many articles of his available at the medical library, this particular article addresses pre-med students.  In it, we get an idea of Dr. Stout's down-to earth ideas on the practice of medicine in general and the science of Pathology in particular-- as he explains to a young novitiate what she might expect to encounter as she begins her career.  The article is entitled simply enough "Pathology." (click here to read) Dr. Stout's ideas are still as relevant today as they were 40 years ago when the article was published.  Again, we thank Columbia University and its Alumni Association for permission to reprint this article.  

For those who are interested in learning more about Dr. Stout, a bibliography appears at the end of Virginia Frantz's article.  In addition,  Dr. Stout's daughter has given his personal papers to Columbia University and we understand from their archivist that they are in the process of cataloging those documents. 

Lastly,  we include here a reprint of Dr. Stout's obituary as it appeared in the New York Times.  It may contain historical information about Dr. Stout's life that may be of interest to some of our readers.  The newspaper clipping shows its age but we still thought it worthy to include.