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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 | |
| Branch | |
| 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 (30 April 1922 – 14 July 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 (30 April 1922 – 14 July 1999), known as Ernest L. Wynder, was born in Herford, Westphalia, to Jewish parents. In 1938 his family fled Nazi Germany for the United States, where he enrolled at New York University. He trained at Camp Ritchie and served in the Army as a German speaker, including psychological warfare work monitoring German newscasts. He appears in a wartime group photograph of Ritchie Boys at Camp Ritchie with Konrad Kellen, Stefan Heym, Louis Atlas, Peter Weidenreich, and Joseph Eaton (see gallery caption).
After the war Wynder studied medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, receiving both a Bachelor of Science and an M.D. in 1950. 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 papers linking smoking to lung cancer. Follow-up laboratory work showed that cigarette tar could produce cancers in mice.
Wynder spent the 1950s and 1960s at the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, published hundreds of papers on cancer epidemiology, founded the American Health Foundation in 1969, and in 1972 founded the journal Preventive Medicine. He received the Robert Koch Prize (Gold) in 1990.
Research notes
Gallery
-
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
