Lawrence E. Hinkle

Dr. Lawrence E. Hinkle, Jr., a pioneering investigator and designer of prospective studies of the natural history and mechanism of sudden death and of coronary heart disease among middle-aged American men, died on January 10, 2012, at the Meadow Ridge retirement community in Redding, CT. He was 93.

When he retired in 1988, Dr. Hinkle was serving as a Professor of Medicine, Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, and Head of the Division of Human Ecology of the Department of Medicine, at Cornell University Medical College, and as an Attending Physician at New York Hospital, in New York, NY.

Dr. Hinkle was a practicing Physician at New York Medical Hospital for over 40 years. During the period from 1962 to 1988, Dr. Hinkle pursued research at Cornell University Medical College focusing on investigations into the ways in which peoples' interactions with the world around them affect their bodily functions and health. Among other projects, he developed methods for obtaining clinically meaningful data from continuous recordings of the electrocardiograms of men under conditions of ordinary activities from which he generated prospective studies of the natural history of cardiac disrhythmias. He authored over 135 published papers on a wide variety of technical medical topics. In 1987, he received the Albion O. Bernstein Award for Excellence in Medical Research from the New York Medical Society.

Born on February 7, 1918, he was the eldest son of Lawrence Earl Hinkle and Mary Simons Smith [Hinkle]. He was raised in Raleigh, NC, and he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating in 1938 as President of Phi Beta Kappa and recipient of the Archibald Henderson Medal. He received his degree as a Medical Doctor from Harvard Medical School in 1942, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. During World War II, he served on active duty in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1943 to 1946. From January 1944 to October 1945, he served as Assistant Medical Officer on the battleship USS Indiana (BB58) attached to the Third and Fifth Fleets.

He resided in New Canaan, Connecticut from 1950 to 2004. The devoted husband of Janice Byington Hinkle for 70 years, they have six children: Lawrence E. Hinkle, III, [Peggy] of Arlington, VA; Ward B. Hinkle [Cynthia Foote] of Orchard Park, New York; Janice Gregory of Concord, NH; Susan Murray [James Murray] of Asheville and Sunset Beach, NC; Catherine D. Hinkle [Art Ciociola] of Raleigh, NC; and, John North Smith Hinkle [Christine] of Ridgefield, CT. They also have eleven grandchildren: Lawrence E. Hinkle, IV, Katherine Adamson Hinkle, and Caroline Elizabeth Hinkle of Arlington, VA; Charlotte Foote Hinkle and Amanda Foote Hinkle of Orchard Park, NY; Janice Anne Kitchen of Concord, NH; Sarah Payton Murray, Emily Simons Murray, and Abigail Hamilton Murray of Asheville and Sunset Beach, NC; and, Michael Ciociola and Elizabeth Catherine Ciociola of Raleigh, NC. He is also survived by his brother, North S. Hinkle [Connie], of Sedona, AZ.