George H. McCracken Jr., Class of 1958

Until you helped lead the way, few researchers chose to explore how to treat infectious diseases in infants and children. There was little financial incentive for drug companies, little reason to believe medication would work in such fragile bodies, and a raft of technical challenges to overcome. You, however, were undaunted. In decades of imaginative and meticulous clinical work at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center you have both established the protocols used to treat pediatric infectious diseases worldwide and shown how further research can be done. Your work has involved, among many other things, figuring out how to balance the efficacy and toxicity of drugs in very small and vulnerable bodies and how the early application of steroids along with antibiotics can reduce or eliminate the deafness brought on by certain forms of meningitis. You have gone on to develop the algorithms for treating numerous such infections. In addition, you helped found and have served since 1982 as chief editor of the field’s main journal and written hundreds of your own publications. As President and Treasurer of The National Pediatric Infectious Diseases Foundation you have raised millions of dollars to support students in the field and have personally trained scores of researchers who carry on this work around the world. Thus the benefits of your efforts continually ripple out around the globe. And the number of infants, children, and adults worldwide who are alive or have a higher quality of life because of you cannot be counted, only imagined. In recognition of your distinguished achievement in the treatment of pediatric infectious diseases, Williams College is proud to honor you with its Bicentennial Medal.