Morris Arthur Wessel (November 1, 1917 – August 20, 2016) was an American
pediatrician
Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth ...
who practiced in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...
from 1951 to 1993. He was a professor of pediatrics at the
Yale School of Medicine
The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...
. He was known as "a pediatrician who treated not just the children but the whole family."
In 1954, he offered a widely accepted definition of "
colic
Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube (small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content ou ...
": a healthy baby with periods of intense, unexplained fussing and crying lasting more than 3 hours a day, more than 3 days a week, for more than 3 weeks.
Together with Anthony Dominski, Ph.D, he investigated lead levels in children in the 1970s and recommended a level then thought to be unrealistically low. Eventually the
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, and maintains an office in Washington, D.C. The AAP has published hundreds of poli ...
recommended an even lower level. With former
Yale School of Nursing
The Yale School of Nursing (YSN) is the nursing school of Yale University, located in West Haven, Connecticut. It is among the top 20 graduate nursing schools in the country, according to the latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report (2024). In ...
Dean
Florence Wald
Florence Wald (April 19, 1917 – November 8, 2008) was an American nurse, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing, and largely credited as "the mother of the American hospice movement".
In 1997, Wessel was awarded the American Academy of Pediatrics' C. Anderson Aldrich Award, which recognizes achievement by a physician in the field of child development. "My goal was to use my relationship to families to enhance the capacities of parents and children to meet as effectively as possible stresses in their lives," he said in his acceptance speech. "I feel very much a part of a timeless continuity of values that binds pediatricians together as we care for children and families." The Morris Wessel Fund, a
donor advised fund
In the United States, a donor-advised fund (commonly called a DAF) is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals. To participate in a dono ...
of the New Haven Community Foundation, makes an award to an "unsung hero" in New Haven each year.
Biography
Wessel, born in Providence, Rhode Island, was the sole child of Morris J. Wessel, who died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, and Bessie Bloom Wessel, a sociologist who was on the faculty of
Connecticut College
Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...
.
Wessel graduated from
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 ...
in 1939 and received his M.D. from
Yale Medical School
The Yale School of Medicine is the medical school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was founded in 1810 as the Medical Institution of Yale College and formally opened in 1813. It is the sixth-oldest m ...
in 1943. He joined the
United States Army Medical Corps
The Medical Corps (MC) of the U.S. Army is a staff corps (non-combat specialty branch) of the U.S. Army Medical Department (AMEDD) consisting of commissioned medical officers – physicians with either an M.D. or a D.O. degree, at least o ...
and served with the 121st General Hospital at
Bremerhaven
Bremerhaven (; ) is a city on the east bank of the Weser estuary in northern Germany. It forms an exclave of the Bremen (state), city-state of Bremen. The Geeste (river), River Geeste flows through the city before emptying into the Weser.
Brem ...
, Germany, where he became a captain. After leaving the Army, he became a pediatric fellow at the
Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic () is a Nonprofit organization, private American Academic health science centre, academic Medical centers in the United States, medical center focused on integrated health care, healthcare, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science ...
in Rochester, Minnesota, because of his interest in Mayo's Rochester Child Health Project. Three months after he arrived there, the noted pediatrician Ben Spock joined the project and he became, in Wessel's recollection, "a vitally important mentor for me."
As a research fellow at Yale in 1948, Wessel joined in the landmark "rooming-in" study by the late clinical professor Edith B. Jackson, M.D., which examined how keeping newborns in their mothers’ hospital rooms affected families. His participation in the study also helped Wessel decide what kind of pediatrician he wanted to be. His role in the study was to interview parents during pregnancy. Mothers- and fathers-to-be often burst into tears as they recounted traumatic childhood incidents such as the death of a parent. "Is there any way that we as pediatricians could support families during a crisis like that?" he asked himself.
When Wessel retired from his private practice in 1993 after 42 years, hundreds of people celebrated Morris Wessel Day in New Haven's Edgerton Park. He continued to work as a consultant to the Clifford Beers Clinic, the oldest outpatient behavioral health clinic in the United States, and retired from that post in 1997. At that time, the clinic named its national trauma center the Morris Wessel Child and Family Trauma Center of the Clifford Beers Clinic. In 1995, he received an honorary degree from Connecticut College.
Wessel was married to Irmgard Rosenzweig Wessel (1925–2014), a clinical social worker who fled Hitler and emigrated to the United States from
Kassel, Germany
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, in central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name, and had 201,048 inhabitants in ...
, as a teenager. The couple have four children,
David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
, Bruce, Paul and Lois. Wessel died in August 2016 at his home in New Haven at the age of 98.