Wisconsin State Journal

Tuesday, October 16, 2001, pages A5-A6.

Bamforth, Betty Jane

MADISON/ SHOREWOOD HILLS - Betty J. Bamforth, M.D., age 78,

physician, teacher, mentor, historian, sailor, naturalist,

philanthropist, and professor emeritus of anesthesiology, UW Medical

School, died Thursday morning, Oct. 11, 2001, at University Hospital,

following a short illness. Dr. Bamforth was born on Jan. 20, 1923, in

New Britain, Conn., to Harry S. and Marion H. (Collyer) Bamforth. She

graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and in 1947 obtained

her M.D. degree from Boston University. After an internship at Mount

Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., she completed a residency in

anesthesiology at Wisconsin General Hospital in 1951. She was among

the last residents to serve under Dr. Ralph Waters, considered the

father of modern anesthesia and the first chair of the UW Department

of Anesthesiology, the first such academic department in the country.

After three years as assistant professor of anesthesiology at the

University of Oklahoma she returned to Madison in 1954, coincident

with her appointment as an associate professor of anesthesiology, was

promoted to professor in 1964, and remained on the UW Medical School

faculty for 38 years until her retirement in 1992. She served as

acting chair of the department of anesthesiology (1969 until 1971),

was the first woman chair of that department, served the UW Medical

School as an assistant dean for student affairs (1973 until 1983),

and for academic affairs (1992), and also served as mentor for the

Medical School class of 1992, the only woman to serve in such

capacity. At the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Bamforth was a member

of numerous university, and Medical School committees, including the

UW Athletic Board (1972 until 1984), the Medical School Admissions

Committee, the Student Promotion Committee and the Honors Awards

Committee. She attained national and international prominence

largely for her writing and lecturing about the history of

anesthesiology. Dr. Bamforth served as president of the Wisconsin

Medical Alumni Association, on numerous educational and

administrative committees of the American Society of Anesthesiology,

was a founding member of the Society for Education in Anesthesiology,

and served as president of the History of Anesthesiology. She was

honored by the American Society of Anesthesiologists with several

distinguished national lectureships, including the Wright Memorial

Lecture, which she delivered to the ASA in 1982, and the keynote

Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lecture, the most prestigious award

bestowed by the ASA, which she delivered to that group in 1993, the

first woman to present that distinguished lecture. Boston University

awarded her its Distinguished Alumna Award in 1988. In Madison, Dr.

Bamforth served on the boards of the Friends of the Arboretum, as

treasurer of the First Unitarian Society Foundation, and was elected

as the Mendota Yacht Club's first female commodore. She sailed an E

scow with the club for many years. She also served two terms as

president of the Madison Altrusa Club, a woman's service club. In

1992, she was among seven women who received the YWCA's Women of

Distinction Award. Her friends remember her as an enthusiast for

Wisconsin's birds and flora. She is survived by a sister, Jean S.

Bamforth, Boston, Mass.; and cousins, Ralph B. Collins, Newbury Port,

Mass. Ronald B. Meehan, Westerly, R.I., and John F. Meehan,

Burlington, Ontario, Canada. Memorial services will be held at 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 18, 2001, at the FIRST UNITARIAN MEETING HOUSE, 900

University Bay Drive. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed

to the Independent Living Retirement Community, 602 N. Segoe Road,

Madison, the Madison Opera of the UW Arboretum.