John Hanbery, MD Award

John Hanbery, MD (1919-1996)

John Hanbery was born in Enid, Oklahoma on June 11, 1919. However, his family moved to Long Beach, California where he spent much of his childhood. He entered Stanford as a freshman in 1938 and received his undergraduate degree in 1942. Three years later he was granted an M.D. from Stanford University SOM, which was located in San Francisco at that time. He participated in a residency at Stanford until 1948, at which point he embarked upon a residency in neurosurgery at the famed Montreal Neurologic Institute at McGill University. There he trained under the direct supervision of Wilder Penfield and William Cone, two of his most esteemed role models. During his residency, he helped improve shunting procedures, which were being developed to relieve neonatal hydrocephalus. He also performed experiments to help determine safe and effective topical antibiotic concentrations to be utilized during brain surgery.

In 1954, Dr. Hanbery was recruited to return to Stanford as assistant professor of neurosurgery within the Department of Surgery. Through his determined efforts, the Stanford neurosurgical residency-training program was established in 1961. Hanbery was invited to be the inaugural Professor and Executive Head of the Division of Neurosurgery in 1964. During his tenure as Head of Neurosurgery, Hanbery trained 26 residents and countless interns and medical students. His residents benefited from his talent of teaching both at the bedside and in the operating theater. He was able to analyze the most complex surgical problem and dissect it so that his students could understand the solutions. Hanbery had the ability to lead residents through delicate surgical procedures in a manner that allowed for the transfer of his surgical talents to the trainee. His former residents felt so indebted to their mentor that they established the John W. Hanbery Society in 1974 in his honor. This organization continues to be quite unique; every year residents loyal to their former chief gather to present scientific and clinical papers that can be discussed in an open and honest forum. Dr. Hanbery retired as the Head of the Neurosurgical Unit at Stanford University SOM in 1989.