William H. Hudson Lecture

WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON, M.D. 1862–1917

Dr. William Henry Hudson has been called the first Southern neurosurgeon and rightly so. His Memory is kept alive largely as a result of the William Henry Hudson Lectureship established by the Southern Neurosurgical Society and presented at the annual meeting of the society.

Dr. Hudson was born in Chipley, Georgia in 1862. He graduated from the Atlanta Medical College in 1886. Following graduation he was in Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia for two years before settling in LaFayette, Alabama to begin his surgical practice. He was said to be a strict follower of Listerian principles. In 1892 he left for two years abroad, spending a year in London where he met Sir. William Gowers and was influenced by Sir. Victor Horsley. The next year was spent at the University of Berlin learning microscopic technique for examining tissues.

Returning to LaFayette he practiced neurosurgery in Western Georgia and Southern Alabama. He traveled by train, carrying his heavy box of instruments, to various towns operating for the most part in private homes. He was aptly called an “itinerant neurosurgeon” by Dr. Edgar Fincher.

Dr. Hudson designed a number of neurosurgical instruments including cranial and laminectomy forceps together with the Hudson perforator and burr used by generations of neurosurgeons before the introduction of air-turbine instruments. Though never associated with a university, he did have fourteen publications most of which were on neurosurgical topics. In 1913 he reported on 152 cranial operations without any mortality due to the surgery. He never accumulated any wealth or owned a home. He died in Linville Alabama in 1917 and thus ended the life of a remarkable pioneer Southern neurosurgeon.

William Henry Hudson Lecturers

2024	John Sampson MD, PhD	Durham, North Carolina
2023	Mark N. Hadley, MD	Birmingham, Alabama
2022	Harry R. van Loveren, MD	Tampa, Florida
2020	Robert E. Harbaugh, MD	Hershey, Pennsylvania
2019	Michael T. Lawton, MD	Phoenix, Arizona
2018	Nelson M. Oyesiku, MD, PhD	Atlanta, Georgia
2017	Daniel L. Barrow, MD	Atlanta, Georgia
2016	Anil Nanda, MD	Shreveport, Louisiana
2015	Ralph G. Dacey, Jr., MD	St. Louis, Missouri
2014	Dennis D. Spencer, MD	New Haven, Connecticut
2013	Robert F. Spetzler, MD, FACS	Phoenix, Arizona
2012	Robert Martuza, MD	Boston, Massachusetts
2011	Richard Fessler, MD, PhD	Chicago, Illinois
2010	Mitchel Berger, MD	San Francisco, California
2009	Edward Laws, MD	Boston, Massachusetts
2008	Roberto C. Heros, MD	Miami, Florida
2007	Jon H. Robertson, MD	Memphis, Tennessee
2006	Edward H. Oldfield, MD	Bethesda, Maryland
2005	James T. Robertson, MD	Memphis, Tennessee
2004	John A. Jane, MD, PhD	Charlottesville, VA
2003	Julian T. Hoff, MD	Ann Arbor, Michigan
2002	Peter C. Burger, MD	Baltimore, Maryland
2001	Volker K.H. Sonntag, MD	Phoenix, Arizona
2000	Stephen J. Haines, MD	Charleston, South Carolina
1999	Mr. Lew Bennett	Belleair Shores, Florida
1998	M. Gazi Yasargil, MD	Little Rock, Arkansas
1997	John T. Povlishock, PhD	Richmond, Virginia
1996	Albert L. Rhoton, Jr., MD	Gainesville, Florida
1995	The Honorable Pedro Rossello	San Juan, Puerto Rico
1994	Murray Goldstein, D.O., M.P.H.	Washington, D.C.
1993	John Kirklin, MD	Birmingham, Alabama
1992	Peter T. Fox, MD	San Antonio, Texas
1991	Leo N. Hopkins, MD	Buffalo, New York
1990	Paul L. Kornblith, MD	New York, New York
1989	Hermes Kontos, MD, PhD	Richmond, Virginia
1988	John M. Tew Jr., MD,	Cincinnati, Ohio
1987	Shirley Ann Gilmore, PhD	Little Rock, Arkansas
1986	Paul Reier, PhD	Gainesville, Florida
1985	Michael T. Modic, MD	Cleveland, Ohio
1984	Helen F. Cserr, PhD	Providence, Rhode Island
1983	J. Donald Easton, MD	San Antonio, Texas
1982	William H. Feindel, MD, PhD	Montreal, Quebec
1981	John A. Bevan, MD	Los Angeles, California
1980	Lloyd Guth, MD	Baltimore, Maryland
1979	Vernon Mountcastle, MD	Baltimore, Maryland
1978	Stanley H. Appel, MD	Houston, Texas
1977	William Willis, MD, PhD	Galveston, Texas
1976	John Porter, MD	Dallas, Texas

William H. Hudson Lecture

WILLIAM HENRY HUDSON, M.D. 1862–1917

William Henry Hudson Lecturers

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