In Memoriam: Robert W. Cantrell, MD
As AAO-HNS/F President in 1987, Dr. Cantrell led the Academy through dynamic change and growth by directly working with the membership and the Board of Directors to address concerns regarding grassroots representation.
Robert W. Cantrell, MD
As AAO-HNS/F President-elect in 1986, Dr. Cantrell wrote in the August Bulletin, “What is an academician, and what is a private practitioner? Many private practitioners hold clinical appointments… and most otolaryngologists on full-time university faculties are required to recover their salaries from clinical income.” Perhaps explaining his election, he said, “I had never thought of myself as either an academician or as a private practitioner but simply as an otolaryngologist.”
During his time as President, Dr. Cantrell effectively managed issues that arose within the Academy by directly addressing the membership and working with the Board of Directors to address concerns regarding grassroots representation. He formed the AAO-HNS/F Humanitarian Efforts Committee to encourage members to donate their skills to parts of the world where their talents were needed to advance patient care. He also advocated for Academy involvement in the political process to strengthen the delivery of, and access to, quality healthcare services in the United States.
Recorded in A Century of Excellence, Dr. Cantrell said that he was chosen to lead the organization during its "teenage years," which “every parent knows is a rebellious time.”1
According to historical accounts from the University of Virginia (UVA) Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Dr. Cantrell was hired in 1976 as the first full-time academic chair, a post he held for 20 years. In 1994, he was appointed Vice President and Provost for UVA Health Sciences, a role he held through 2001. He retired in 2004.
Prior to his academic career, Dr. Cantrell served as Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at the Naval Regional Medical Center (Balboa Hospital) in San Diego, California, a post he held for seven years following the completion of his residency in 1969.
He was a member of more than 30 professional organizations and served as president of nearly every major otolaryngology association. Highly respected in the academic community, Dr. Cantrell authored more than 135 peer-reviewed articles.
Dr. Cantrell supervised a landmark study on the physiological effects of noise on humans, establishing a link between prolonged noise exposure and elevated levels of cholesterol. For this work, he received the Harris P. Mosher Award of the Triological Society for excellence in otolaryngology clinical research in 1974.
Dr. Cantrell received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1956 and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1960 from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. After a year of surgical training at The New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center in New York, New York, he entered the U.S. Navy in 1961 and spent the next three years as a Battalion (and later Regimental) Surgeon with the Third Marine Division based in Okinawa, Japan, where he met and married his wife, Lee.
In 1964, Dr. Cantrell began his four-year residency in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, completing his training in 1969. Throughout his naval career, Dr. Cantrell served 17 years on active duty and 20 years in the Naval Reserves, including activation for nine months during Operation Desert Storm. He rose rapidly through the ranks, becoming a Captain in 1972 and, at age 39, was the youngest captain in the Navy Medical Corps.
1. Loring W. Pratt, MD, Jerome C. Goldstein, MD, and Sharon A. Bryan, A Century of Excellence (American Academy of Otolaryngology, 1996), p. 59.
