William C. MacCarty


William Carpenter MacCarty was an American surgeon and pathologist active in the early 20th century.

Early life and education

MacCarty was born in Louisville, Kentucky on June 10, 1880, to Rhoda Ann Carpenter MacCarty and William Orlando MacCarty.
He attended the University of Kentucky for his B.S. in 1900 and M.S. in 1909. He earned his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1904. Following his graduation from Johns Hopkins, he studied at the Koenigin Hospital in Berlin until 1906, focusing on surgical pathology.

Career

He became head of the Surgical Pathology Section of the Mayo Clinic in 1909, continuing in the role until 1946, and serving a senior consultant until 1948.
He introduced the term strawberry gallbladder in 1910. His article contains one of the earliest color photographs of pathology specimens. Known for his claim that "a well trained pathologist can make the diagnosis of cancer from a single cell" in the frozen section practice, he earned the nickname "One Cell MacCarty". He was a founding member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology in 1922.
He taught pathology as a professor in the University of Minnesota's Mayo Graduate School of Medicine.
He retired on October 1, 1948.

Personal life and death

MacCarty married Helen Maud Collin, and the couple had two sons, both of whom entered the medical field. William C. MacCarty Jr. worked as a radiologist, while Collin S. MacCarty led the Neurologic Surgery section of the Mayo Clinic.
MacCarty died in Rochester, Minnesota on May 17, 1964, following a brief illness.

Selected publications

MacCarty wrote over 100 papers during his career, and also wrote "for a number of medical books and encyclopedias".

Articles

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Honors and awards