Morris A. Wessel
Encyclopedia
Morris Arthur Wessel practiced pediatrics in New Haven, Conn., from 1951 to 1993. He was a clinical professor of pediatrics at Yale Medical School. He was known as the Yale Medical School alumni magazine put it, as “a pediatrician who treated not just the children but the whole family.”
In 1954, he offered a widely accepted definition of “colic” as a healthy baby with periods of intense, unexplained fussing/crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks.
Together with Anthony Dominski, Ph.D, he investigated lead levels in children in the 1970s and recommended a level then thought to be unrealistically low. Eventually the American Academy of Pediatrics
recommended an even lower level. With former Yale School of Nursing
Dean Florence Wald
he studied the treatment of terminally ill patients, which Wald believed was often futile and dehumanizing. Wald told Wessel his role would be to help her understand doctors’ thinking. “I can’t explain why doctors do what they do,” he told her. But he agreed to help. Their work led to the opening of the nation’s first hospice, in Connecticut, in 1974.
In 1997, Wessel was awarded the American Academic of Pediatrics’ C. Anderson Aldrich Award, which recognizes achievement by a physician in the field of child development. “My goal was to use my relationship to families to enhance the capacities of parents and children to meet as effectively as possible stresses in their lives,” he said in his acceptance speech. “I feel very much a part of a timeless continuity of values that binds pediatricians together as we care for children and families.” The Morris Wessel Fund, a donor advised fund of the New Haven Community Foundation, makes an award to an "unsung hero" in New Haven each year.
.
Wessel graduated from Johns Hopkins University
in 1939 and received his M.D. from Yale Medical School in 1943. After serving in the U.S. Army, he became a pediatric fellow at the Mayo Clinic
in Rochester, Minn., because of his interest in Mayo’s Rochester Child Health Project. Three months after he arrived there, the noted pediatrician Ben Spock joined the project and he became, in Wessel’s recollection, “a vitally important mentor for me.”
As a research fellow at Yale in 1948, Morris A. Wessel, M.D. ’43, joined in the landmark “rooming-in” study by the late clinical professor Edith B. Jackson, M.D., which examined how keeping newborns in their mothers’ hospital rooms affected families. His participation in the study also helped Wessel decide what kind of pediatrician he wanted to be. His role in the study was to interview parents during pregnancy. Mothers- and fathers-to-be often burst into tears as they recounted traumatic childhood incidents such as the death of a parent. “Is there any way that we as pediatricians could support families during a crisis like that?” he asked himself.
When Wessel retired from his private practice in 1993 after 42 years, hundreds of people celebrated Morris Wessel Day in New Haven's Edgerton Park. He continued to work as a consultant to the Clifford Beers Clinic, the oldest outpatient behavioral health clinic in the United States, and retired from that post in 1997. At that time, the clinic named its national trauma center the Morris Wessel Child and Family Trauma Center of the Clifford Beers Clinic. In 1995, he received an honorary degree from Connecticut College.
Wessel is married to Irmgard Rosenzweig Wessel (born 1925), a clinical social worker who fled Hitler and emigrated to the U.S. from Kassel, Germany, as a teenager. The couple have four children, David, Bruce, Paul and Lois.
In 1954, he offered a widely accepted definition of “colic” as a healthy baby with periods of intense, unexplained fussing/crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week for more than 3 weeks.
Together with Anthony Dominski, Ph.D, he investigated lead levels in children in the 1970s and recommended a level then thought to be unrealistically low. Eventually the American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics is the major professional association of pediatricians in the United States. The AAP was founded in 1930 by 35 pediatricians to address pediatric healthcare standards. It currently has 60,000 members in primary care and sub-specialist areas...
recommended an even lower level. With former Yale School of Nursing
Yale School of Nursing
Established in 1923 in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., Yale School of Nursing has become a leading school of nursing in the United States with a reputation for excellence in teaching, research and clinical practice. The school is ranked in the top ten graduate schools of nursing in the United States...
Dean Florence Wald
Florence Wald
Florence Wald was an American nurse, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing, and largely credited as "the mother of the American hospice movement".-Biography:...
he studied the treatment of terminally ill patients, which Wald believed was often futile and dehumanizing. Wald told Wessel his role would be to help her understand doctors’ thinking. “I can’t explain why doctors do what they do,” he told her. But he agreed to help. Their work led to the opening of the nation’s first hospice, in Connecticut, in 1974.
In 1997, Wessel was awarded the American Academic of Pediatrics’ C. Anderson Aldrich Award, which recognizes achievement by a physician in the field of child development. “My goal was to use my relationship to families to enhance the capacities of parents and children to meet as effectively as possible stresses in their lives,” he said in his acceptance speech. “I feel very much a part of a timeless continuity of values that binds pediatricians together as we care for children and families.” The Morris Wessel Fund, a donor advised fund of the New Haven Community Foundation, makes an award to an "unsung hero" in New Haven each year.
Biography
Wessel, born in Providence, R.I., was the sole child of Morris J. Wessel, who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, and Bessie Bloom Wessel, a sociologist who was on the faculty of Connecticut CollegeConnecticut College
Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college located in New London, Connecticut.The college was founded in 1911, as Connecticut College for Women, in response to Wesleyan University closing its doors to women...
.
Wessel graduated from Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
in 1939 and received his M.D. from Yale Medical School in 1943. After serving in the U.S. Army, he became a pediatric fellow at the Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
in Rochester, Minn., because of his interest in Mayo’s Rochester Child Health Project. Three months after he arrived there, the noted pediatrician Ben Spock joined the project and he became, in Wessel’s recollection, “a vitally important mentor for me.”
As a research fellow at Yale in 1948, Morris A. Wessel, M.D. ’43, joined in the landmark “rooming-in” study by the late clinical professor Edith B. Jackson, M.D., which examined how keeping newborns in their mothers’ hospital rooms affected families. His participation in the study also helped Wessel decide what kind of pediatrician he wanted to be. His role in the study was to interview parents during pregnancy. Mothers- and fathers-to-be often burst into tears as they recounted traumatic childhood incidents such as the death of a parent. “Is there any way that we as pediatricians could support families during a crisis like that?” he asked himself.
When Wessel retired from his private practice in 1993 after 42 years, hundreds of people celebrated Morris Wessel Day in New Haven's Edgerton Park. He continued to work as a consultant to the Clifford Beers Clinic, the oldest outpatient behavioral health clinic in the United States, and retired from that post in 1997. At that time, the clinic named its national trauma center the Morris Wessel Child and Family Trauma Center of the Clifford Beers Clinic. In 1995, he received an honorary degree from Connecticut College.
Wessel is married to Irmgard Rosenzweig Wessel (born 1925), a clinical social worker who fled Hitler and emigrated to the U.S. from Kassel, Germany, as a teenager. The couple have four children, David, Bruce, Paul and Lois.