User:Stevetlynn/Dr. edward stewart taylor

Dr. Edward Stewart Taylor (Aug. 20, 1911 — present) was chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado from 1947 to 1976. He volunteered at first as a faculty member of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and later became full-time head of the obstetrics and gynecology department.

During his 29-year career as chairman, Taylor trained approximately one-third of the obstetrics and gynecology clinicians in the Denver area. Many of his residents entered sub-specialty training programs and became leaders in departments of obstetrics and gynecology throughout the United States.

In 1999, the University of Colorado established an endowed chair called the E. Stewart Taylor Chair in Obstetrics and Gynecology. In 1986, he received the Distinguished Service Award of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In his long tenure as editor in chief for the medical journal Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey, his editorial comments continuously educated practicing physicians on what was valuable and useful in research.

He wrote and edited several editions of a gynecology textbook, Essentials of Gynecology, and an obstetrics textbook, Beck’s Obstetrical Practice. The texts served as valuable resources for medical students, residents and practicing physicians. Because he held leadership positions in most professional societies and organizations in obstetrics and gynecology during his career, he helped set standards of care and professional conduct throughout the specialty.

When he began his career in academic medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado, Taylor recognized that infant mortality was caused primarily by premature birth and low birth weight and that the condition was linked to pregnancy complications and adverse socioeconomic factors. Working with Dr. Harry Gordon, the first full-time professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Dr. Taylor encouraged the close collaboration of obstetricians and pediatricians in the care of mothers and infants. They especially encouraged care of mothers with pregnancy complications.

Dr. Taylor also worked with Dr. Joseph Holmes, professor of medicine, to establish the University of Colorado as one of the premier centers for research and clinical use of ultrasound. Dr. Taylor and his colleagues published several of the first reports on the use of diagnostic ultrasound in obstetrical and gynecological patients in the United States.

Dr. Taylor and his colleague, Dr. Paul Bruns, recruited to the CU medical campus a team to study fetal physiology and fetal growth and their potential relationship to fetal and infant mortality. Through Dr. Taylor’s leadership, the department was on the forefront of prenatal diagnosis of fetal abnormalities using amniotic fluid analysis and ultrasound examination.

Dr. Taylor, known familiarly as Stewart, was born in Hecla, S.D. His father, Robert Stewart Taylor, was from Dublin, Ireland. Sylvia Dewey Taylor, his mother, was born in Belding, Mich. As a college student, Taylor worked a forty-hour work week and earned an undergraduate degree in 1933 from the University of Iowa. In 1936, he received a medical degree from the university. He practiced briefly in Worthington, Minnesota, from 1941-1942 before joining the military. In 1943, he was appointed a surgeon in the 107th Evacuation Hospital in General George Smith Patton's U.S. Third Army throughout the European Theater of World War II.

Dr. Taylor was awarded five battle stars: Normandy, France, Ardiens, Rhine and Germany. After the war ended, Dr. Taylor moved to Denver with his family. He is retired and lives in Denver.