Roy Laver Swank papers

Roy Laver Swank (1909-2008), born March 5, 1909 in Camas, Washington; received a B.S. at the University of Washington (1930); a Bachelor of Medicine (1934) was followed closely by an M.D. and Ph.D. (1935) from Northwestern University School of Medicine in Evanston-Chicago. He specialized in Neurology and Psychiatry. After internship at Passavant Hospital in Chicago (1934-35), he did his residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (1936-39). While there he also did a Pathology Fellowship at Harvard (1937-38). He did a 2-year fellowship abroad at the Karolinska Instituet in Stockholm, Sweden (1939-41) and afterwards returned to Harvard. Swank served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps with the 5th General Hospital- Harvard Medical Unit (1942-45), ending the war with the rank of Major. He taught at Harvard again afterwards, and worked at Boston City Hospital (1945-48), while continuing also as an associate at Brigham. He then moved on to McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute (1948-54). From there he moved to the west coast and was professor and head of the Neurology Division at the University of Oregon Medical School (1954-76), bringing a team with him from back east. He later took a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship in Germany (1961-62), where he also did some special work in Sweden (1961). He and the family also took the advantage to begin a series of European vacations. He continued research with the University of Oregon as Professor Emeritus until 1993.

Dr. Swank became a pioneer in the subject of multiple sclerosis, making major breakthroughs in the field of blood filtration and dietary influences on the course of the disease. He also organized the private company Pioneer Filters, Inc. in Beaverton, Oregon, in 1973-74. He later founded the Swank Multiple Sclerosis Clinic, also in Beaverton. Swank published six books and wrote more than 180 articles in his field, and received various honors. He died Nov. 16, 2008.