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Memoir

Philip Munro Northrop
Regent's Proceedings 127

Philip Munro Northrop, Ann Arbor, oral surgeon and former professor in the University's School of Dentistry, died in Grand Rapids on September the twenty-eighth, at the age of fifty-nine. He had resigned from the faculty only last June.

Dr. Northrop earned a dental surgeon's degree here in 1928 and a Master of Science degree in 1931. From 1925 to 1927, he was a member of the University track team, competing in the pole vault, the broad jump and the javelin throw and setting, for the last event, a Big Ten record, which stood for ten years. After completing his graduate study, he practiced dentistry in Grand Rapids for four years and then returned to Ann Arbor as Assistant Professor of Oral Surgery. Here he carried a heavy load of graduate and undergraduate teaching, undertook fruitful research into blood-borne infections involving the teeth, and helped advance surgical techniques for the treatment of harelip and cleft palate. The University advanced him to Associate Professor in 1941 and to Professor in 1950. His interest in collegiate sports remaining, he served also for two terms on the Board in Control of Intercollegiate Athletics, including a period as vice-chairman.

Dr. Northrop's former confreres on the dental faculty and his many associates throughout the University community mourn the loss of a close and sympathetic friend as well as of a most gifted professional colleague. The Regents of the University take this occasion to express their own sorrow and to extend deepest sympathy to Mrs. Northrop and to the other members of his family.