Physician; Researcher; Professor.
Caroline Cunningham Bedell was born in Ithaca, NY on 29 Nov 1904, the daughter of Mary Louise Crehore (Smith College 1892) and Frederick Bedell, a physics professor at Cornell University. She graduate summa cum laude from Smith College in 1925 and from Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1930. She married Dr. Henry Thomas (1891-1966) in 1934 and together they had three children, Henry III (b. 1935), Eleanor (b. 1939), and Mary (b. 1940). Caroline Thomas was simultaneously building an impressive medical career devoted to cardiovascular research. She joined the teaching staff of John Hopkins School of Medicine in 1935 and was on the clinic staff. At the same time, she served as physician at the Bryn Mawr School for Girls, 1935-38 and as a civilian consultant to the Army Surgeon General during World War II. She also maintained a private practice, 1938-70. Dr. Thomas was best known for her research. She proposed and demonstrated the prophylactic value of sulfanilamide for rheumatic heart disease and in 1946 began the longitudinal study of predictors of heart disease, cancer, and suicide known as the Precursors Study. She directed the Study until 1984. Throughout a long and distinguished career she won many fellowships and awards including an honorary Sc.D. from Smith College (1955), and had the distinction of being one of the first named to the John Hopkins Alumnae Association Hall of Fame (1993). She died 14 Dec 1997.
From the description of Caroline Bedell Thomas Papers, 1917-1985. (Smith College). WorldCat record id: 140688147
