Former Chairmen
Dr. James Garber Galbraith
J. Garber Galbraith was born in Anniston, Alabama on May 28, 1914. He attended the University of Notre Dame, received a B.S. degree from St. Louis University in 1936, and his M.D. degree in 1938. He did his internship and one years residency in general surgery at the Lloyd Noland Hospital in Fairfield, Alabama. From 1940-1943, he was a resident in neurological surgery at the Neurological Institute of New York.
Dr. Galbraith was on active duty with the U.S. Naval Reserve Medical Corps (1943-46) with action in the Pacific Theater on the hospital ship, U.S.S. Tranquility.
He practiced Neurosurgery in Birmingham from 1946 to 1984, being affiliated with the University of Alabama School of Medicine as a voluntary faculty member and later as full-time director of the Division of Neurosurgery. He is now Emeritus Professor of Surgery and remains active with teaching Gross and Neuroanatomy for medical students and conferences for neurosurgical residents. He has been voted best basic science teacher and best clinical teacher by the medical students.
Dr. Galbraith was past president of the following medical organizations: Jefferson County Medical Society (1960), Medical Association of the State of Alabama (1974), Southern Medical Association (1965), Southern Neurosurgical Society (1956), American Academy of Neurological Surgery (1968), Society of Neurological Surgeons (1974) and American Board of Neurological Surgery (Chairman 1972-74) He is a member of the AANS.
He was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Societies and the Alabama Academy of Honor. He was the recipient of three honorary degrees.
He married the former Marguerite Stabler, and they had four daughters, Ann, Jane, Kay and Laura, and six grandchildren.
Dr. Griffith Harsh, III
Griffith Rutherford Harsh, III was born January 9, 1924 in Birmingham, Alabama, of devout Christian parents and was raised in the Presbyterian Church. He was educated in the Birmingham public schools through grade 9. After completing preparatory school at Northwood School, Lake Placid, New York, he was graduated from Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Medical School. Post graduate education included surgical residency at Vanderbilt, during which Dr. Cobb Pilcher introduced and stimulated him to neurosurgery as a career. This was followed by neurosurgical fellowship at Boston Childrens and Peter Bent Brigham Hospitals with Drs. Ingraham and Matson, and subsequent neurosurgical residency at Barnes Hospital, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, with Dr. Henry Schwartz.
Military service included medical training in the Army Specialized Training Program during WW II. Prior to the Korean War he served on the Neurosurgical Service at Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C. With the outbreak of the Korean War, he served at Tokyo Army Hospital, and as Commanding Officer of the First Provisional Neurosurgical Detachment in Korea.
After 24 years of private neurosurgical practice in Birmingham, Alabama, ultimately in a seven man group, he entered full-time academic practice as Professor and Director of the Division of Neurosurgery, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical School. He served as member and chairman of the ABNS and of the Residency Review Committee for Neurosurgery.
He married Craig Kilpatrick of Sweetwater, Tennessee in 1952. Together they had three sons; Griff IV, now a neurosurgeon at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Milton, a lawyer and investment banker in Birmingham, and Carter, a neurosurgeon at St. Vincents Hospital in Birmingham. Each son is married and collectively they have produced four grandsons and two granddaughters.
In 1991 he retired to full-time cattle farming in Sweetwater, Tennessee, where he currently serves as an elder in the Presbyterian Church of America.
Dr. Moses Stephen Mahaley, Jr.
M. Stephen (STEVE) MAHALEY, JR., was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, December 18, 1932. He attended Charlotte College (now The University of North Carolina at Charlotte) and was graduated from Wake Forest University (B.S., 1954). He received both his M.D. and Ph.D. (Anatomy) in 1959 from Duke University. He served an internship in general surgery (1949-1960) and a residency in neurological surgery (1960-1965) at Duke University Medical Center. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha and received the Borden Undergraduate Research Award in Medicine, a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellowship and the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons Resident's Award for research. Dr. Mahaley was appointed Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and of Anatomy in 1965 at Duke University Medical Center and promoted to Associate Professor in 1975. In 1977, he became Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Division of Neurological Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH).
In 1986, he accepted the positions of Professor of Surgery and Director of the Division of Neurological Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). At UNC-CH and later at UAB, he established major brain tumor treatment and research programs.
Dr. Mahaley's research interests focused on laboratory and clinical investigation of malignant intracranial tumors and his research accomplishments pioneered the fields of immunobiology and immunotherapy of brain tumors. Dr. Mahaley published more than 165 important scientific papers, reviews and book chapters, including the first comprehensive compilation and analysis of all reported modalities of therapy for malignant glioma.
Dr. Mahaley was active in national neurosurgical societies with numerous professional responsibilities including: North Carolina Neurosurgical Society (President, 1975-1976) AANS (Board of Directors, 1981-1985); Congress of Neurological Surgeons (Chairman, Continuing Education Subcommittee I, 1976-1979; Southern Neurosurgical Society (Secretary, 1979-1982; President, 1983-1984); American Academy of Neurological Surgery (Executive Committee, 1980-1981; American Board of Neurological Surgery (Secretary-Treasurer, 1983-1987), and Member of Editorial/Advisory Boards of: Contemporary Neurosurgery, Surgical Neurology, Journal of Clinical Neuro-Ophthalmology.
In 1989, Dr. Mahaley resigned most of his professional commitments and retired to his mountain home in Maggie Valley, NC to enjoy his family and to pursue numerous interests, including birding, hiking and writing. He died March 8, 1992 and is survived by his wife of 36 years, Jane, their five children, Rhett, Stephen, Rebecca, David and Lee and three grandchildren.
Dr. Richard B. Morawetz
Richard B. Morawetz was born in Marietta, Georgia, on November 27, 1944, the son of Richard Joseph Morawetz and Mary Norton Bacon. He was educated at the Westminster School, Atlanta, Georgia (1958-1962); Emory University (1962-1965); and Duke University School of Medicine (1965-1969). He interned and completed one year of residency in general surgery at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City (1969-1971); completed a residency in neurosurgery under J. Garber Galbraith, M.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1971-1975); and one year of fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital (1975-1976). During his year of fellowship he worked with Robert Crowell, M.D. to define thresholds of cerebral ischemia in waking primates.
He returned to Birmingham, Alabama, in 1976 and joined the faculty in the Division of Neurosurgery. Under the guidance of J. Garber Galbraith and Griff Harsh he progressed through the academic ranks, and is currently J. Garber Galbraith Professor of Neurosurgery, Director of the Division of Neurosurgery, and Vice-Chairman of the Department of Surgery. He has served as President of the Southern Neurosurgical Society and the Neurosurgical Society of Alabama, Vice-President of the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons, and Vice-President of the Neurosurgical Society of America. He has served on the Editorial Board of Neurosurgery.
After developing an interest in medical risk management, he served for many years as the Chairman of the Policy Committee of the Self-Insurance Trust of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and gained considerable experience in the areas of self-insurance and excess liability coverage.
In 1968 he married Mary Jean Middlebrooks, and has since developed interests in birding, horticulture, landscape design, primitive coastal living, and aviation.