On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, I salute the current chairman, Dr Jay Grosfeld, the 39 previous chairs, the 6 previous executive directors, and the 170 directors who have served the American Board of Surgery (ABS) without pay during these productive years. Our successors truly have become better surgeons than we are. By instruction and examination, they will continue to become masters of surgery as they move to higher standards of excellence in a profession that is our anxiety, our pride, and our glory.
In his 1935 presidential address to the American Surgical Association (ASA), Edward W. Archibald of McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, an original Regent of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), suggested that "The means of providing the country with surgeons of the ideal stamp are to be found in the establishment of a board of examiners."
The ASA immediately responded by appointing a committee chaired by