This year of 1969 is a most fortuitous one in which to be able to present the Wilburt Cornell Davison medallion (Figure). This is because it is the year that marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Sir William Osier and the medallion is being presented to Osler's youngest living American student, one who is, in the judgment of many, his greatest.
We at Duke are fortunate indeed to have the "Davison Tradition," molded in Osler's classical humanist-physician tradition but renascent with the unique hallmark upon it of the singular great spirit and personality of our beloved mentor and warm friend.
This man, to whom I must present this medallion with unseemly brevity, was a Rhodes Scholar under Sir William at Oxford. I mention brevity, for although Dean Davison has been my own lifelong hero and benefactor in medicine, and although his accomplishments and honors are of truly promethean