Leaving a Legacy at Baylor
The late Russell Deter II, M.D. ’63, was many things. He was a pioneering, compassionate obstetrician-gynecologist whose staunch advocacy for ultrasound technology in the 1980s and ’90s helped make it ubiquitous. Dr. Deter was a consummate researcher and an unsung hero behind the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He also was a passionate educator whose enthusiasm for science inspired his students and colleagues. Now, through a planned gift to support an endowed chair position, he and his late wife are champions for Baylor.
To his younger brother, Dwight Deter, P.A. ’76, PA-C Emeritus, Dr. Deter was all those things and more. He was a much older brother, fifteen years his senior—brilliant, intense, but unassuming.
“I’d ask him, when he’d get some award or something, so why didn’t you tell me about that? He’d just shrug his shoulders,” Mr. Deter said. “That’s just the way it was. He was very humble. He wanted to help people.”
Guided by his family’s dedication to helping others, Dr. Deter completed his undergraduate studies at Baylor University in 1958 before earning his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in 1963. He then pursued a three-year Fulbright-Hays fellowship at the Rockefeller Institute in New York, where he worked in the lab of Dr. Christian de Duve, a Belgian biochemist who was studying the process of autophagy, a process whereby a cell breaks down and recycles its own damaged or unnecessary components. Dr. Deter contributed essential work toward discovering lysosomes, which are indispensable during autophagy. It was a discovery that would win Dr. de Duve and two other scientiststhe Nobel Prize in 1974.
In 1968, Dr. Deter returned to Baylor’s Department of Anatomy to continue his electron microscopy and cell biology work. But in 1975, he would become an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and begin a new chapter in his career, from mentoring countless medical students and residents and instilling in them a passion for research and a commitment to patient care, to contributing to the development of obstetrical ultrasound. As director of Obstetrical Sonography, he also was an early, visionary proponent of fetal ultrasonic biometry, publishing influential research and producing growth assessment methods. His work provided clinicians with critical tools to monitor pregnancies, leading to better outcomes for both mothers and babies around the globe. Throughout his career, he was recognized with numerous honors, contributed to medical texts, authored over 160 peer-reviewed articles and served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Ultrasound from 1982 until 1996.
He is remembered with respect and fondness by colleagues. Wesley Lee, M.D., Fel. ’87, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, met Dr. Deter in 1985 during Dr. Lee’s maternal-fetal medicine fellowship at Baylor, beginning a lasting friendship, mentorship and academic partnership centered on the use of ultrasound in pregnancy.
“Dr. Deter’s achievements—like his pioneering use of ultrasound in routine prenatal care and his collaborative work with fellow Baylor physician Dr. Frank Hadlock to develop fetal weight estimation methods—were the result of his deep passion for discovery, tireless work ethic, enthusiasm for applying mathematics into clinical practice, scientific curiosity and unwavering commitment to excellence in all aspects of his work,” Dr. Lee said.
“Dr. Deter had an incredible intellect and capacity for three-dimensional thought,” said Michael Belfort, MBBCH, D.A., M.D., Ph.D., Res. ’93, Fel. ’95, professor and chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “His knowledge of ultrasound physics and fetal measurement was unparalleled. Russell was always available and willing to teach and to learn. I have seldom met someone so dedicated to their science, and so enthusiastic to teach it.”
As one final contribution to Baylor, Dr. Deter made arrangements through his estate plan to establish the Russell L. Deter, M.D., and Susan Tipery Deter Endowed Chair in Fetal Imaging, which will help ensure support for ongoing research and innovation in fetal imaging, continuing his momentous work. Joan Mastrobattista, M.D., professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor, has been appointed as the inaugural holder of the Chair.
Dwight Deter knows that his brother would be thrilled to see what developments might come from the chair’s establishment. “His research was almost like it was Russell’s baby—he brought it into the world, and he wanted it to keep going when he was gone.” Mr. Deter said. “With an endowed chair, this research that he started can be supported and continued for many years.”
To contribute to the Chair, click here.
