Archives West Finding Aid

Dr. Maxwell Myer Wintrobe (1901-1986) was born October 27 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to Eastern European immigrants. He studied at the University of Manitoba where he earned Bachelor of Arts (BA-1921), Doctor of Medicine (MD-1926) and Bachelor of Science in Medicine (BS-1927) degrees. He married Rebecca Zanphir in 1928. After spending time as an intern at the Winnipeg General Hospital and a fellow at his alma mater, Wintrobe joined the faculty of Tulane University where he invented the Wintrobe hematocrit, an accurate technique for measuring red blood cells. He earned a Ph.D. there in 1929. Having served on the faculty at Johns Hopkins from 1930-1943, Dr. Wintrobe relocated to Salt Lake City as professor of internal medicine and head of the department of medicine at the University of Utah where, with Dr. George E. Cartwright, he conducted research in hereditary and metabolic diseases and cardiovascular medicine and built and supervised a hematology training program. In the 1980s, he was instrumental in the development of the Quantitative Buffy Coat (QBC) blood testing technique. An influential hematologist and author of the authoritative textbook, Clinical Hematology, Dr. Wintrobe eventually became chief consultant in medicine to the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Salt Lake City and Director of the university's Cardiovascular Research and Training Institute as well. He passed away in 1986.