The impact of the following message, delivered May 3, 1968 at a prayer breakfast, is intensified when one knows its author and the circumstance in which it was delivered. The circumstances are revealed in the message; the introduction of the speaker should be made.
Dr. C. Everett Koop is that rare person who excels in more than a single pursuit. Following his formal medical education he assumed the position of the Surgeon-in-Chief of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The uniqueness of his appointment was due not only to his young age; he was the sixth surgeon in the United States to devote his effort to the care of children exclusively, and the founder of the second training program for pediatric surgery in the United States.
In 1968 when this talk was presented, Dr. Koop had been a pacemaker in the field of pediatric surgery more than twenty years—especially in the development of new and highly successful procedures in surgery of the newborn and surgery of tumors. Those he has trained have carried his teaching and techniques throughout the country and the world.