John Albert Kirchner

KIRCHNER, JOHN A., MD John Albert Kirchner, 96, Chief of the Section of Otolaryngology at Yale University School of Medicine from 1951 through 1980 and an internationally recognized pioneer in laryngeal physiology and cancer research, died peacefully on July 31 after a brief illness. Born on March 27, 1915, in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, the eldest of four children, Kirchner grew up in Lancaster. After graduating from high school he hitchhiked across the country, foreshadowing his lifelong love of travel. Among his many adventures, he spent a week in jail in Tennessee after being arrested for hopping a freight train. This was during the Depression, and one of the lessons Kirchner learned was that the most generous people were often those who had the least. Kirchner attended college and medical school at the University of Virginia, receiving his M.D. degree in 1940. After completing his internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, he enlisted in the army at the outbreak of World War II. He served as a medical officer with the rank of captain in the 314th Regiment, 79th Infantry Division, landing on Utah Beach on D-Day plus nine. His medical unit, hidden under trees at the edge of a field, was once strafed by American planes. Realizing the pilots had mistaken the Americans for Germans, Kirchner got into an ambulance marked with a red cross and drove it into the center of the field as the planes came around for another pass. For this and other meritorious actions Kirchner was awarded the Bronze Star. After returning from Europe in late 1945, Kirchner completed his otolaryngology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he met Aline Legault, a French-Canadian student in the Johns Hopkins Department of Art as Applied to Medicine. They became engaged a week after their first date and married three months later. At Yale, Kirchner taught medical students, trained residents, performed surgery, and conducted research on laryngeal physiology and cancer. In 1963-1964 he took a sabbatical year and studied the larynx at the Royal College of Surgeons in London, England. One of his major areas of professional interest was the connection between smoking and cancer. After his retirement from practice in 1985, Kirchner made numerous appearances at New Haven schools to speak about the health hazards of tobacco. Kirchner was chosen to serve terms as president of several national professional societies and was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, both national and international. Kirchner pursued a variety of interests throughout his life. He was an enthusiastic organic gardener, crabber and fisherman, and a talented musician who played guitar, accordion, and piano. Fluent in several languages, he loved to travel and was often invited to give lectures and teach courses abroad. In his mid-fifties he became interested in mountain climbing and traveled to Europe several times to scale the Alps. He had a lifelong love of learning and continued to take adult-education courses well into his eighties. All who knew him were inspired by his enthusiasm, his humor, his adventurous spirit, and his active ongoing interest in everyone and everything. Ever the alert physician, on the eve of his ninety-fifth birthday he performed the Heimlich maneuver on a dinner companion when he saw that she was choking. "Don't ever think you've out-lived your usefulness," she told him. Dr. Kirchner is survived by his wife, Aline, and children J. Cameron Kirchner, Thomas L. Kirchner, Paul E. Kirchner, Marie (Mimi) Kirchner and Christine (Tina) Jackson; fourteen grandchildren; and one great grandson. A memorial service will be held for him later this year. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ronald McDonald House. Arrangements are with the Hawley Lincoln Memorial, 493 Whitney Ave., New Haven.