UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #672
SLAUTTERBACK, DAVID B.

SLAUTTERBACK, David B. (1926- )
Professor of Anatomy
At UW: 1959-1994

Interviewed: 2004	
Interviewer: Ann Peckham
Length: 1 hour, 35 minutes

Key words: Early years; Parents' careers; University of Michigan; Army service; Research interests; Werner Gren Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Cornell University Medical College/Sloan-Kettering Graduate Division; Electron microscope; Marriage; American Cancer Society fellowship; New York University Anatomy Department; Teaching at Cornell University; Hiring by the University of Wisconsin Anatomy Department; Chairmanship of Anatomy; Visiting Scholar at Harvard University; Educational psychology; Retirement; Cell differentiation; AARP activities; Religion.

Interview Session (April 13, 2004): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:29	David Slautterback talks about his early years and discusses his parents' careers: his father was a car dealer and his mother was a teacher. He mentions his family's moves from Indianapolis to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and later to Fremont.

00:05:10	DS describes growing up in the rigid Dutch Reformed culture of Fremont, Michigan. His mother pushed him to skip a grade in school. He graduated from high school in 1943.

00:08:35	DS struggled while attending the University of Michigan on an accelerated program. He enlisted in the Army and was stationed in the Philippines at the end of the war in a medical dispensary. 

00:11:58	After the war he fared better in college and became involved in research on phospholipids and various biochemistry studies. He cites a course on snails and clams (malacology) as very influential because of his one-on-one relationship with the professor.

00:15:43	DS relates his decision to study cell physiology at the Werner Gren Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He describes his curriculum and activities while at Stockholm.  

00:18:11	He briefly describes his Army service.

00:18:55	DS was New York City with his mother while trying to find a boat to take him to Sweden. One day, DS and his mother were walking around Manhattan and found themselves near Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital, known for its cancer research. DS had done his master’s thesis on cancel cells so his mother encouraged him to visit the hospital. He ended up talking with the hospital’s director, who was looking for a graduate student. While DS was in Sweden, the hospital solidified the administrative details of the position, which DS took upon his return to the US. 

00:22:15	DS details the research he performed at the hospital, including his work on cell fractions at Sloan Kettering. His research caught the attention of other scientists working at Rockefeller University. DS also met his wife, Marilyn, at Sloan Kettering, and they married in 1952.

00:25:57	He received a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Cancer Society to work with Harold Rush in the McArdle Lab at the University of Wisconsin. Rush stipulated that he take a course in physical chemistry, upon which DS refused to come to Wisconsin and transferred the fellowship to New York University’s anatomy department. 

00:28:36	DS describes his heavy workload in the anatomy department at NYU, where he taught gross anatomy, and histology, as well as set up a new electron microscope laboratory. He talks about the eccentricities of some members of the department and the constraints on his research posed by the heavy teaching load.

00:30:25	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:30:27	David Slautterback relates his research activities at NYU and his fears about being able to leave. He goes on to describe how he returned to teach gross anatomy at Cornell University Medical College. He had to teach gross anatomy to himself because he had never taken a course in it.

00:32:57	DS relates how he was recruited to work as an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin in 1959. He details his teaching and research responsibilities in the anatomy department.

00:35:38	He briefly mentions his wife's suffering from tuberculosis and their attempts to cope with it.

00:37:56	He speculates as to why he was given the chairmanship of the anatomy department, which he disliked but served from 1967-82. He felt burdened by the department’s past and its unwillingness to move in new directions as well as by the budget. He recalls having to lock the doors to the department during anti-war demonstrations to keep protesters out.

00:42:41	He remarks on the "unbearable" politics of the Medical School deans and administration.

00:43:41	DS regrets having taken the department chairmanship because administration ended his publishing career. He describes how he managed to continue his research and continue to develop analytic procedures for electron microscopes.

00:47:06	After resigning as the department chair, DS left Wisconsin to become a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He describes some of this research.

00:49:44	He talks about his interest in educational psychology and his frequent disagreements with the curriculum committee.

00:54:34	End of side. End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

00:54:36	David Slautterback discusses his research interests in cell differentiation.  He notes that this interest originated from his grandmother’s death from breast cancer. Studying cells in the 1940s was mere guesswork, he says; nobody knew anything about DNA and other cellular components. His own investigations commenced with the study of cell fractions and the isolation of membranes. He always wanted to discover what enables cell differentiation.

01:00:31	DS traces the evolution of electron microscopes and relates his excitement at being involved in efforts to use them to analyze biological systems.

01:05:38	He mentions his research on rough endoplasmic reticulum in hydra cells. He likens his work to stem cell research. He goes on to talk about his research on microtubules and his professional conflict with Keith Porter about publishing his results.

01:13:50	He mentions his late interest in receptor mediated endocytosis and regrets not having been able to pursue this research further. He cites the denial of grant funding for this project as a factor in his retirement.

01:15:35	He became involved in AARP as an advocate and chief lobbyist on the subcommittee for health. He mentions his involvement in passing bills on consumer protection in health care as well as his appointment to a policy council on long-term care. He continues to serve on councils dealing with residential care options for the Department of Health and Family Services.

01:21:23	Since 1995, he has worked as a docent at the Madison Arts Center and the Elvehjem Museum. He describes some of his activities in the contemporary arts and his sculpting.

01:25:40	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

01:25:59	David Slautterback discusses his religious faith as a Quaker and a member of a Congregational Church. He describes his attraction to the intellectual approach to theology with David Lyons and his activities with the Faith and Reason group.

01:31:55	The chief lesson he has discerned from his life in science is that all truths are relative; he knows that some of his own discoveries will turn out to be wrong.

01:34:06	DS mentions his service on a subcommittee on land use and transportation.

01:34:49	End of side. End of tape. End of interview.

END