Class Notes

By his own admission, John States’s primary interest was cars. Growing up in Rochester, he was fascinated by engines. As chair of the orthopaedics department at Rochester General Hospital, he would come roaring into the car park of the doctor’s office building in his Ferrari.

John’s love of cars and medicine would lead him to become a pioneer of automobile safety. His work as track physician at the Watkins Glen International race course, as well as his unique combination of understanding both the structure of cars and the human body, gave him unparalleled insight into the injury pattern brought on by collision. With a scientist’s keen power of observation, and painstaking collection and analysis of injury data, he found ways to prevent and reduce injuries. He had the personality and political acumen to form a coalition of doctors, legal experts, public health officials, politicians, car manufacturers, and interested members of the public to improve car safety. His research and advocacy was a major force behind passage of the nation’s first mandatory seat belt law, in New York state, in 1984. Today, 49 states have a similar law.

John had a kind and gentle personality that was soothing to his patients. He made them feel good. When he faced detractors—like the man in Binghamton who, upon passage of the New York seat belt law, started to write John hate mail, year upon year—he just chuckled and smiled. Although he suffered from chest pains, despite multiple coronary bypass surgeries, he never grumbled.

John became a faculty member at the Medical Center in 1960, where he supervised resident rotations and medical student clerkships. Legions of medical students and young orthopaedic residents rotating through Rochester benefitted from his tutelage and encouragement. I was one of them. John was my teacher and gave me my first job. In fact, he provided everything down to his father’s examination couch, without ever asking anything in return.

John, who became professor emeritus of orthopaedics in 1990, never did give up his love of cars. The last time we spoke was by telephone. We spoke for more than 10 minutes, on his health and on the weather. Then when I started describing for him my neighbor’s car collection, he got excited. I heard “wow” and “gee whiz” from the other end of the line. I could almost see the gleam in his eyes.

John died in March at age 89. How would I sum up his achievements? Immaculate scholarship with a patrician delivery. Goodbye, my dear friend, and thank you for all the lives you have saved.

—Julian Chang ’83M (Res)

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Chang is an orthopaedic surgeon in Hong Kong, honorary medical advisor to the Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong, China, and chief medical officer for the Hong Kong Olympic Team. He was an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at Rochester from 1985 to 1987.