Lawrence Kilham (10 August 1910, in

Brookline, Massachusetts Brookline () is an affluent town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, and part of the Greater Boston, Boston metropolitan area. An exclave of Norfolk County, Brookline borders six of Boston's neighborhoods: Brighton, Boston, Brighton ...

– 21 September 2000, in

Lyme, New Hampshire Lyme is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 1,745 as of the 2020 census. Lyme is home to the Chaffee Natural Conservation Area. The Dartmouth Skiway is in the eastern part of ...

), was a physician, virologist, amateur ornithologist, and nature writer. He is credited as the discoverer of K virus (1952) and, with L. J. Olivier, Kilham rat virus (1959), the first

protoparvovirus ''Protoparvovirus'' is a genus of viruses in the ''Parvovirinae'' subfamily of the virus family ''Parvoviridae''. Vertebrates serve as natural hosts. There are 23 species in the genus including ''Protoparvovirus rodent1'' for which the exemplar ...

identified. Kilham received his bachelor's degree in 1932 and his M.S. in biology in 1935 from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and then his M.D. in 1940 from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Longwood Medical Area in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is the third oldest medical school in the Un ...

. As an intern in Cleveland, Ohio, he married an intern, Jane K. Kilham (1912–1992). Early in WW II, husband and wife went to England, and after D-Day Lawrence Kilham served in field hospitals as a doctor in the Third Army under

Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (11 November 1885 – 21 December 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, then the Third Army in France and Germany after the Alli ...

. In 1945, Lawrence Kilham returned to graduate school to do research on virology and to teach epidemiology. He was a virology researcher from 1949 to 1960 and in 1961 he became a professor at

Dartmouth Medical School The Geisel School of Medicine is the medical school of Dartmouth College located in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is one of the sev ...

(Geisel School of Medicine), retiring there as professor emeritus in 1978. He was elected a fellow of the American Ornithologists' Union in 1974. He was awarded the

John Burroughs Medal The John Burroughs Medal, named for nature writer John Burroughs (1837–1921), is awarded each year in April by the John Burroughs Association to the author of a book that the association has judged to be distinguished in the field of natural hist ...

in 1989 for his 1979 book ''On Watching Birds''. Lawrence Kilham died at his home in

on 21 Sep 2000. He was predeceased by his wife and a son, Peter. He was survived by three sons,

Benjamin Benjamin ( ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the younger of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's twe ...

, Michael, and Joshua, and a daughter, Phoebe.

Books

* *; reissued as * *

References

External links

Lawrence Kilham Journal of a 1933 expedition to Greenland
at Dartmouth College Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Kilham, Lawrence 1910 births 2000 deaths Harvard Medical School alumni Geisel School of Medicine faculty American virologists American nature writers American male non-fiction writers John Burroughs Medal recipients People from Brookline, Massachusetts People from Lyme, New Hampshire