Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Fernbach, Donald J.
Parallel form(s) of name
- Fernbach, Donald Joseph
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1925-2013
History
Donald Joseph Fernbach was born April 10, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in the European Theater and earned a Bronze Star during World War II. He earned his Bachelor’s from Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tennessee, in 1948 and his MD from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1952, and came to Houston to study pediatrics as one of Baylor College of Medicine’s first residents. He also completed a residency at Children’s Medical Center and Harvard University School of Medicine in Boston, followed by a fellowship in hematology and oncology. He returned to Houston in 1957 to join the faculty at Baylor and helped found the Research Hematology-Oncology Service (now the Children’s Cancer Center) at Texas Children’s Hospital in 1958.
Dr. Fernbach coauthored the first textbook on clinical pediatric oncology, led the effort to screen for sickle cell disease in newborns, and was the first to transplant bone marrow between identical twins to treat aplastic anemia. He was the director of the Blood Transfusion Services at Texas Children’s from 1957 to 1971. He was one of the founders of Houston’s Ronald McDonald House and led the movement to ban smoking in the Texas Medical Center.
Dr. Fernbach died September 22, 2013, in Houston and is buried at the Houston National Cemetery.