Hinshaw, H. Corwin (Horton Corwin), 1902-2000

H. (Horton) Corwin Hinshaw was born August 1, 1902 in Iowa Falls, Iowa, and was raised on an apple farm in the Quaker community of Greenleaf, Idaho. He became a physician and pulmonary specialist instead of a farmer, but ironically the high point of his career was his work with streptomycin, an antibiotic substance extracted from soil. Streptomycin, the first anti-microbial drug developed after penicillin, was a break-through in medical science. It has proven to be effective in combating a variety of bacterial infections, including those that are penicillin-resistant. It was also the first drug used to treat tuberculosis successfully, although the high rate of mutation in the tuberculosis baccilli causes it to build up a resistance to the drug over time. Hinshaw and his collaborator, William H. Feldman, were nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1952, but lost out to their colleague, Selman A. Waksman, who first extracted streptomycin in the laboratory. Hinshaw subsequently had a long and distinguished career in medical research, private practice, teaching, and writing.

Hinshaw was the third of six children born to Milas Clark Hinshaw (1873-1955) and Ida Letitia Bushong Hinshaw (1881-1942). He attended Greenleaf Academy in Idaho, and then took his B.S. degree from the College of Idaho in 1923. While at the college, he met Dorothy Youmans (1902-1994) whom he married on August 6, 1924. The Hinshaws had four children; his two sons followed him into medical careers, while one daughter became a zoologist and author, and the other an educator.

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