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Ernest L Wynder
| Ernest L Wynder | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Ernst Ludwig Wynder |
| Born | 30 April 1922 Herford, Westphalia |
| Died | 14 July 1999 Manhattan, New York, US |
| Nativity | Germany |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Known for | Linking smoking with lung cancer |
| Awards | Robert Koch Prize (gold, 1990) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 32926486 |
| Enlisted | Newark, New Jersey |
- Robert Koch Prize (Gold, 1990)
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Ernest L. Wynder (1922–1999), born Ernst Ludwig Wynder in Herford, Germany, was a Jewish Ritchie Boy and later an American epidemiologist and public-health researcher. With Evarts A. Graham he published the landmark 1950 Journal of the American Medical Association study that helped identify smoking as a contributory cause of lung cancer—work that shaped decades of cancer prevention research.
Biography
Ernst Ludwig Wynder was born on 30 April 1922 in Herford, Westphalia, to Jewish parents. In 1938 his family fled Nazi Germany for the United States, where he enrolled at New York University. Roster and enlistment records list him as Ernest L Wynder (ASN 32926486), a German-born Jewish trainee associated with Camp Ritchie; he enlisted from Newark, New Jersey, with four years of college noted on the service record.
During the Second World War he became a U.S. citizen and served in the Army as a German speaker. Wikipedia records that he was assigned to psychological warfare work monitoring German newscasts. He also appears in a wartime group photograph of Ritchie Boys preserved in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (Joseph Eaton collection) and shared on the Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page—standing among fellow trainees including Konrad Kellen, Stefan Heym, Louis Atlas, Peter Weidenreich (later Wyden), and Joseph Eaton (see gallery caption for the full identification).
After the war Wynder studied medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, receiving both a Bachelor of Science and an M.D. in 1950. As a medical student he began the epidemiological work that made his scientific reputation. With thoracic surgeon Evarts A. Graham he published the landmark 1950 Journal of the American Medical Association study "Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic Carcinoma," one of the first major scientific papers to identify smoking as a contributory cause of lung cancer. Follow-up laboratory work with Graham showed that cigarette tar could produce cancers in mice and helped identify carcinogens in tobacco smoke.
Wynder spent the 1950s and 1960s at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, published hundreds of papers on cancer epidemiology (including lung, breast, and many other sites), founded the American Health Foundation in 1969, and in 1972 founded the journal Preventive Medicine, which he edited. He received the Robert Koch Prize (Gold) in 1990. He died of thyroid cancer in Manhattan on 14 July 1999.
Research notes
Gallery
-
Thanks to Stephen Goodell for sharing this group photo. It can be found at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, part of the Joseph Eaton collection. All the men identified in the pix are "Ritchie Boys." Seated - Hans Habe. Standing L-R - Unknown, Ernest Wynder, Konrad Kellen, unknown, Stefan Heym, Louis Atlas, Peter Weidenreich (last name later changed to Wyden), unknown, Joseph Eaton.
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 77 |
| Nara ASN | 32926486 |
| Nara Name | WYNDER ERNEST |
| Nara State | 22 |
| Nara County | 13 |
| Nara POE | 2252 |
| Nara DOE | 70643 |
| Nara Grade Alpha | PVT |
| Nara Grade Code | 8 |
| Nara Branch Alpha | NO |
| Nara Branch Code | 2 |
| Branch | No branch assignment |
| Nara Term or Enlistment | 5 |
| Term of enlistment | Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law |
| Defer. Date | 0 |
| Nara Source | 0 |
| Nara Nativity | N1 |
| Nara Year of Birth | 22 |
| Nara Race | J |
| Nara Race Description | White not yet a citizen |
| Nara Education | 8 |
| Nara Civilian Occupation | 992 |
| Nara Marital Status | 6 |
| Nara Height (inches) | 43 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 444 |
| row_source | demographics |
Sources
- Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
- NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
- 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
- Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2021-08-11 (1 post)
- Wikipedia: Ernst Wynder