Arthrodesing Operations on the Feet

Dr. Edwin Warner Ryerson was born in New York City, graduated from Harvard, then trained at Boston Children’s Hospital [1]. After visiting centers in Berlin and Vienna he moved to Chicago in 1899, where he accepted a post at Rush Medical College. In 1916 he was named professor and head of orthopaedics at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Owing to WWI he entered military service in 1918–1919. Afterward he became head of orthopaedics at Northwestern University until his retirement from the university in 1935. He continued in private practice until 1947, when he retired to Florida. Dr. Ryerson maintained a lifelong interest in teaching and service to the orthopaedic community. He became a member of the American Orthopaedic Association in 1905 and was President in 1925. Dr. Ryerson was active in the Clinical Orthopaedic Society, which also had a role in forming American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons [4]. In the archives of the AAOS, he was described as “a forensic and parliamentary expert” [6]. He was a founding member of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery in 1934, became its vice President in 1935, and served on the Board until 1940 [11].