Thomas B. Turner Collection

During the 1930s and 1940s, Turner and his colleagues made important research contributions to syphilis and the treponematoses. Turner’s own research interests focused primarily on the investigation of immunity in syphilis. He received funding from the U.S. Public Health Service, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Baltimore City Health Department for syphilis research. In 1939, Turner discovered a treponemal immobilization (TPI) antibody. Later a colleague in his lab discovered that this antibody was uniformly present in patients with untreated syphilitic infection. The TPI test became an essential tool for determining accurate rates of syphilis infection and eliminating false positives. Turner identified the optimal conditions for preserving (freezing and thawing for use) spirochetes outside an animal host, allowing scientists to conduct experiments on strains over time. He was also highly regarded for the methods and practices he developed for prevention and control of syphilis. The training program he led at the school of hygiene and public health involved clinical case work, serology in the lab, and epidemiological fieldwork. Turner taught key methods and goals of a syphilis control program, particularly the need to treat both latent and active infections to prevent the spread of disease. From 1940 to the early 1950s, Turner served on major national research advising and funding committees including the Syphilis Study Section of the National Institutes of Health and as Chair of the National Research Council’s Subcommittee on Venereal Diseases. In 1950, the Treponematoses Laboratory Center, a consulting laboratory for the World Health Organization and the center of a world-wide attack on diseases caused by spirochetes, began operating at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health under Turner’s direction.

Starting in 1942, Turner served in the Army Medical Corps, attaining the rank of Colonel. As consultant to the Surgeon General of the Department of the Army, he led the Army’s syphilis eradication program, serving as Director of the Venereal Disease Control Division. With the beginning of World War II, high rates of syphilis among recruits revived fears from World War I that venereal disease would impede the fighting effectiveness of the armed forces. Turner rejected the Army policy on abstinence as the major mode of venereal disease control and approved the massive distribution of condoms among troops at the rate of up to 50 million per month throughout the war. Turner also authorized large-scale advertising campaigns aimed at convincing soldiers to protect themselves by using condoms or getting prophylactic treatment soon after having sex. However, he had to fight widespread opposition from those who believed his programs encouraged promiscuity. Under Turner’s leadership the Army achieved the lowest wartime incidence rate of venereal disease among soldiers ever recorded. He was awarded the U.S. Army Legion of Merit for his achievements in preventing syphilis among U.S. servicemen and among civilians in the U.S. and occupied Europe.

From the late 1940s onwards Turner began to shift the focus of his research from syphilis to polio. He collaborated with David Bodian and Howard Howe on their research that identified the three immunological types of poliovirus which explain why previous vaccines against a single strain had failed. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis appointed Turner to several key committees, the most important of which was the Virus Research and Epidemiology Committee that oversaw research dealing with poliovirus and with vaccine development. Turner was one of seven members of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis Advisory Committee that approved the Salk vaccine as safe to test in clinical trials in 1954, which led to the successful prevention of polio in millions of children.

Named professor of medicine in 1951, Turner became the eighth dean of the school of medicine in 1957 and held the office until 1968. A remarkably effective administrator, Turner worked to increase communications within the school of medicine, between the school of medicine and the hospital, and between the medical institutions and the university. During his tenure the school of medicine underwent its greatest expansion in its history up to that point. The school received a record amount of federal government grants and contracts; its endowment funds doubled and its annual operating budget increased five-fold. The school also doubled its physical plant, added new departments, increased enrollment, and tripled its faculty. As dean, Turner advocated that admission criteria be based on merit and not restricted to any group of persons. In 1963, the first African American students were admitted to the school of medicine.

Turner participated in many scientific and policymaking groups in the health fields and received many tributes for his achievements. In 1966 the University of Maryland conferred upon him an honorary degree of Doctor of Science and in 1968 the University’s Medical Alumni Association presented Turner with the Gold Key and Honor Award for outstanding contributions to medicine and distinguished service to mankind. That same year the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine named its new auditorium in his honor. In 1969, the American Social Health Association (ASHA) awarded Turner, who had played a leadership role at ASHA, their highest tribute, the William Freeman Snow Award for Distinguished Service to Humanity. In 1991 Johns Hopkins University awarded Turner an honorary doctorate of humane letters.

Turner was passionate about medical education, the history of medicine, and The Johns Hopkins University. He had been active in early efforts to establish comprehensive healthcare programs for residents of the immediate community of East Baltimore. He considered Johns Hopkins’ most important role was as a world leader in advancing medical research and medical education. After leaving the dean’s office, he was named the first archivist of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. While serving as archivist he implemented an archival program and wrote a history of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, A Heritage of Excellence. In 1982, he stepped down as archivist to head the newly-formed Alcoholic Beverage Medical Research Foundation.

Turner was affiliated with Johns Hopkins for 75 years. He published over 90 articles and seven books, including a memoir that offers an intimate portrait of medicine at Johns Hopkins during the first half of the twentieth century. Turner cultivated an important and extensive network. At the time that he became Dean of the school of medicine, he had personally known every previous Dean except for William Osler. He remained active at the University as an emeritus professor up until his death at the age of 100 on September 22, 2002.

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