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Giuseppe Grassi, MdSource: The British Medical Journal, Vol. 280, No. 6218 (Mar. 29, 1980), p. 949Published by: BMJStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25439536 .

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BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL 29 MARCH 1980 949

hard working, dedicated, and caring. He was a

man of the utmost integrity. He was widely

read, and music, painting, and history were

his particular interests. He was a good shot and a fisherman. He was intelligent, imaginative, and wise beyond his years. His final illness was

very short. He faced it with great courage. His

main concern was for the future welfare of his

family. He is survived by his wife Vivien

and his twin children.?TES.

GIUSEPPE GRASSI MD

Professor Giuseppe Grassi, who made major contributions to upper gastrointestinal surgery, died on 27 January. He was 66.

Giuseppe Grassi was born in Sicily on 3

August 1913. After a distinguished career

there he went to

Rome and in 1936

was awarded the

degree of MD.

After a short spell in the Army, in

which he took part in the expedition to Albania with

the Alpini Regi ment, he returned

to Rome and

qualified as chief

general surgeon to

the Rome general

hospitals in 1961.

To surgeons and gastroenterologists in Britain

and throughout the world he was best known

for his contributions to upper gastrointestinal surgery and to international communication.

In 1966 he founded and was editor of the

Journal of Surgical Gastroenterologyy published in Italian and English. In 1969 he was a

founder of the Collegium Internationale

Chirurgiae Digestivae. He was president of its

first congress and secretary general until his

death.

Grassi was a man of great energy and

charm. He recognised English as the lingua franca scientifica and made great efforts to

master it j but such was his enthusiasm and the

urgency of his ideas that he invariably lapsed into his native tongue when speaking at the

many international meetings he attended. The

surgical world has lost a lovable and colourful

character. He is survived by his wife and

daughter, and by his son, who is a gastro

enterological surgeon in Rome.?JA-W.

j s Macrae MA, MB, CHB

Dr J S MacRae, who was in general practice at Bradford, died in hospital on 2 January.

He was 71.

John Smith MacRae was born in the Island

of Lewis and educated at Aberdeen Grammar

School and Aberdeen University, where he

qualified in medicine in 1934, having

previously graduated in arts. After working as a

locum in Lewis he joined the resident medical

staff at St Luke's Hospital, Bradford, where

he remained for two and a half years, and it was there that he met his wife Dorothy. He

spent a few months as an assistant in general

practice at Castleford, Yorkshire, before

returning to Bradford in 1938 to join an old

established practice where he was to remain

for the rest of his life, apart from war service.

He served as a regimental medical officer in

North Africa and was mentioned in dispatches, but he felt it was almost as great an honour

when the Arab workers employed by his unit

presented him with a testimonial recording their appreciation of the medical care and

attention they had received at his hands. This

same care was extended to all his patients

throughout his professional life. His hospital

experience had made him a skilled obstetrician, and he undertook most of the domiciliary

midwifery in the practice for many years. He

was also visiting medical officer to the Daisy Hill Hospital for the chronic mentally sick, and when this institution became part of the

new Lynfield Mount Psychiatric Hospital he

continued to work as a clinical assistant for

some years. He carried on in singlehanded

practice after the retirement of his partner and

was active until the day he entered hospital with what proved to be his final illness.

He was a first-class golfer in his younger

days and was a member of the West Bradford

Club until his death. Apart from golf, he liked

nothing better than to return regularly to the

peace and tranquillity of the Western Isles, where he could relax in the company of

relatives and lifelong friends. A generous host

and a loyal friend, he will be greatly missed

by his many friends and colleagues. He is

survived by his wife, son, and daughter.?

JWR.

H THISTLETHWAITE BA, MB, CHB

Dr H Thistlethwaite, who was formerly in

general practice at Sedbergh, Cumbria, died on

12 February after a short illness*. He was 72.

Henry Thistlethwaite was born at Bradford

in 1907 and educated at Bradford Grammar

School. From

there he won an

exhibition in classics to Hert

ford College, Ox

ford, where he

rowed for the

college. In 1930

he graduated BA, but it was not long before he gave up the classics and

became a medical

student at Leeds

University, fol

lowing in the

family tradition, as his sister and one of his

brothers were already doctors. At Leeds he was

president of the students union and captain of

the boat club. It was there that he met his

future wife Mary Gaukroger, a dental student.

In 1937 he took the MB, ChB and after house

jobs at Bradford married and went into single handed rural practice at Sedbergh in 1939. His

wife set up her dental surgery in the same house.

Dr Thistlethwaite's practice extended into a

sparsely populated mountainous area. Visiting was difficult in hard winters, but it suited his

independent character. In 1967 he retired

from his practice because of disability, but he

still lived at Sedbergh and continued to do

locums for another 11 years. He was an active member of the local

community, being a magistrate, a member of

the South Lakeland District Council, and a

life president of Skipton Division Liberal

Association. His other interests included

motor-cycling and archaeology. Not only was

he a kind and conscientious man with a touch

of endearing eccentricity, but also a good clinician who inspired confidence and was well

liked by his patients. Although an outsider, his ancestors had come from nearby Dent, and so he was glad to be accepted as a local person.

Dr Thistlethwaite will be sadly missed. He is

survived by his wife and four daughters.? RAL.

F FORMAN MD, FRGP

Professor Frank Forman, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Cape Town, died in Israel on 9 March.

Frank Forman graduated MB, ChB at

Aberdeen University in 1922, proceeding MD ten years

later. He was

elected FRCP London in 1942.

Since 1924 he had been on the staff

of the medical

school at Cape Town, first as

clinical tutor in

medicine and lec

turer in bacterio

logy. Later he

became assistant to Professor

Falconer, who was

also from Aberdeen and the first professor of

medicine, and in 1938 Forman himself was

appointed to the chair of clinical medicine.

Until he resigned in 1954 all medical graduates at the University of Cape Town since 1924

knew Frank Forman as a teacher, and none

could have failed to learn from his example the sincerity, sympathy, knowledge, and skill

that go to the making of a good doctor. After

his resignation from the chair Forman

continued his association with the medical

school as full-time senior lecturer until 1963, when he reached retiring age. Until that time

he was also senior physician on the joint medical staff.

In 1934 Forman had married Dr Golda

Selzer. In 1959 they visited Israel and also

spent some time in Britain, where Dr Selzer

worked at the National Institute for Medical

Research and Professor Forman visited medical

schools and hospitals. He was also external

examiner for the final-year medical examina

tions at Queen's University, Belfast.

DRK writes : To honour the memory of Frank

Forman, colleagues and friends will recall

the halcyon years of teaching in Cape Town.

The twilight years in Israel brought out a

hidden Frank Forman. A man who would

walk into a playground and be surrounded by children who had slowed a boisterous game to

greet him. Each day he took his lunch in the

cafeteria. The egalitarian society brought him into a mixed queue, which often parted before him in recognition of quiet dignity.

Equally as often and characteristically he

would decline any special favour to take his

turn. The clinical interest was less prominent: the forest and desert walks yielded astute

observations on soil, plants, and animals which

he would investigate with the same thorough ness he once used in the wards. Above all he

loved walks among the stones and history of

Jerusalem. There, whether he was examining the knees of a camel for evidence of bursitis

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