Arturo Belleza Rotor (June 7, 1907 – April 9, 1988) was a Filipino medical doctor, civil servant, musician, and writer.

Medical and government career

Rotor was born in the Philippines and attended the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; ) is a Higher education in the Philippines#State universities and colleges, state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by List of Philippine laws, Re ...

. He graduated simultaneously from the Conservatory of Music and the College of Medicine. He trained further at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

's medical school, publishing a paper on a rare form of

hyperbilirubinaemia Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or, less frequently, greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving ...

(jaundice) now known as "

Rotor syndrome Rotor syndrome (also known as Rotor type hyperbilirubinemia) is a rare cause of mixed direct (conjugated) and indirect (unconjugated) hyperbilirubinemia, relatively benign, autosomal recessive bilirubin disorder characterized by non-hemolytic jaun ...

". During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Rotor served as executive secretary of the

Philippine Commonwealth The Commonwealth of the Philippines (; ) was an unincorporated territory and commonwealth of the United States that existed from 1935 to 1946. It was established following the Tydings–McDuffie Act to replace the Insular Government of the Phi ...

government-in-exile under

Manuel L. Quezon Manuel Luis Quezon y Molina (, , , ; 19 August 1878 – 1 August 1944), also known by his initials MLQ, was a Filipino people, Filipino lawyer, statesman, soldier, and politician who was president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines from 1 ...

, the Philippine president in exile. In the immediate post-World War II period, he was appointed secretary of the Department of Health and Welfare. Later, Rotor was director of the University of the Philippines' Postgraduate School of Medicine and was a practising physician until the early 1980s.

Writing career

Rotor was an internationally respected writer of fiction and non-fiction in English. He is widely considered among the best Filipino short story writers of the twentieth century. He was a charter member of the Philippine Book Guild; the guild's initial publication (1937) was Rotor's ''The Wound and the Scar'', despite Rotor's protests that someone else's work should have been selected. In 1966, the Philippine government recognized his literary accomplishments by awarding him the Republic Cultural Heritage Award. Rotor's best-known literary works are ''The Wound and the Scar'' (1937), ''Confidentially, Doctor'' (1965), ''Selected Stories from the Wound and the Scar'' (1973), ''The Men Who Play God'' (1983), and the short stories "Dahong Palay" (1928) and "Zita" (1930).

Orchids

He was an

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

fancier and breeder, a long-time member of the Philippine Orchid Society, and is the namesake of a

Vanda ''Vanda'', abbreviated in the horticultural trade as ''V.,'' is a genus in the orchid family, Orchidaceae. There are 90 species, and the genus is commonly cultivated for the marketplace. This genus and its allies are considered to be among the ...

orchid species (''Vanda merillii'' var. ''rotorii''). Rotor shared an interest in orchids with his younger brother, Gavino B. Rotor Jr. Gavino took this interest even further, receiving his Ph.D. from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

on orchid biology and becoming an authority on orchid propagation. The orchid genus ''Rotorara'' is named after Gavino.

Other interests

Rotor was a highly accomplished musician and published

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

Personal

Rotor died in 1988 from cancer and was survived by his wife Emma Unson, who taught college mathematics and physics. They had no children. In 1994 Emma joined the Ordinance Development Division of the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...

, and is credited with research as part of the development of the

proximity fuse A Proximity Fuse (also VT fuse or "variable time fuze") is a fuse that detonates an explosive device automatically when it approaches within a certain distance of its target. Proximity fuses are designed for elusive military targets such as air ...

References

External links

Biography
@

Whonamedit? ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...

Rotor's Syndrome
@ Patient An example of Rotor's writing, the short story "Zita", is available as part of ''The Best Philippine Short Stories'':

text @ Sushidog ''The Men Who Play God'' remains in print. It can be found on the website "A Critical Survey of Philippine Literature":

archived @ the

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotor, Arturo 20th-century Filipino medical doctors 1988 deaths 1907 births Executive secretaries of the Philippines Secretaries of health of the Philippines Secretaries of social welfare and development of the Philippines Quezon administration cabinet members Osmeña administration cabinet members University of the Philippines alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Filipino expatriates in the United States