Verne Rheem Mason (August 8, 1889 – November 16, 1965) was an eminent American internist and associate of
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in t ...
. Mason was chairman of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...
's medical advisory committee.
Early years
Born at
Wapello, Iowa
Wapello is a city in and the county seat of Louisa County, Iowa, United States. The population was 2,084 at the time of the 2020 census.
Wapello is part of the Muscatine Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Wapello was platted in the lat ...
, in 1889, Mason received a
B.S. from
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...
, in 1911, and an
M.D. from
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
in 1915. As a medical resident at Hopkins in 1922 Mason gave the disease
sickle cell anemia
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red bl ...
its name.
Internist
When motion picture director
Frank Capra
Frank Russell Capra (born Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Italian-born American film director, producer and writer who became the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s ...
fell ill with a mysterious fever after completing ''
It Happened One Night
''It Happened One Night'' is a 1934 pre-Code American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite ( Claudette Colbert) tr ...
'',
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
chief
Harry Cohn
Harry Cohn (July 23, 1891 – February 27, 1958) was a co-founder, president, and production director of Columbia Pictures Corporation.
Life and career
Cohn was born to a working-class Jewish family in New York City. His father, Joseph Cohn, w ...
called in Mason to diagnose and treat Capra's illness. In 1938, Mason was one of the physicians called to the sickbed of General of the Armies
John J. Pershing. The commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France in World War I was in a coma and sinking. Mason made the medical report on General Pershing, who recovered and lived for 10 years more. When Howard Hughes lay near death in Los Angeles in 1946, following the crash of his experimental plane, the XF-11, he summoned Mason and asked, "Am I going to live?" "I don't know," Mason replied. "Then give this message to the Army," Hughes said. "The accident was caused by the rear half of the right propeller, which suddenly switched into reverse pitch position."
Verne Mason became Hughes personal physician.
Final years
Mason was for many years a member of the medical faculty of the
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $8.1 ...
, a professor of clinical medicine, and an
attending physician
In the United States and Canada, an attending physician (also known as a staff physician or supervising physician) is a physician (usually an M.D. or D.O.) who has completed residency and practices medicine in a clinic or hospital, in the spec ...
at
Cedars of Lebanon Hospital
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a nonprofit, tertiary, 886-bed teaching hospital and multi-specialty academic health science center located in Los Angeles, California. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over ...
. He was considered a leading internist and diagnostician. Highly decorated, he served in both World Wars. Mason was chairman of the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, fi ...
's medical advisory committee.
["Dr. Verne Mason. Miami Physician. Howard Hughes aide dies. Also treated Pershing". ''The New York Times''. November 17, 1965.] He later divorced his first wife Lucy M. Ginn and married Ruth Menardi, former wife of American composer
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first ...
. Mason died on November 16, 1965, in Miami, Florida.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mason, Verne R..
1889 births
1965 deaths
People from Wapello, Iowa
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Physicians of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center