Paul F. J. New, MD, died suddenly at his home, Ledgetop, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, on December 31, 2002. A professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and a past director of neuroradiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital, he was a world-renowned neuroradiologist who taught two generations of physicians how to exploit some of the first and most significant developments in the marriage of computers and medicine.
Death came as he would have wished it, felling him while he sat reading in his living room, a half-finished martini on the table before him, and gazing at an unobstructed view of his beloved Salem Sound on whose waters he had sailed so many times. He was 80 years old.
Paul was born a British citizen in Kobe, Japan, the son of James and Emily Kelly New. His father was an executive with the Dunlop Rubber Company, which at the time had a major office in Japan. Paul returned to England at the age of 14 to matriculate at St. Edmunds College, in Ware, entering medical school four years later at Guy’s Hospital Medical School, University of London. He completed his residency as house surgeon and physician at Princess Alice Memorial Hospital, in Eastbourne, and as house surgeon at Torbay Hospital, in Torquay. His postgraduate radiology work was at Guy’s Hospital, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, and Central Middlesex Hospital, in London. He later served as a medical officer in the Royal Air Force, after which he lived and worked throughout the world, serving in Africa, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
He eventually joined the staff of Laurence Robbins, and later that of Juan Taveras, at the Massachusetts General Hospital, retiring in 1992 as professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. His service at Massachusetts General included a stint as chief of neuroradiology in the 1960s and early 1970s.
In 1968, Paul married Ann Gardner, of Marblehead. A member of the Boston Yacht Club in Marblehead since 1959, he had rented a cottage near the club from Ann’s father. One afternoon, as Ann was roaming the property searching for her lost cat, Paul, being the quintessential chivalrous English gentleman, offered to help her look for it, and the rest is history. They were married in the chapel at Massachusetts General on June 7, 1968. Ann’s mother was terminally ill at the time, so it was a small wedding. Ann and Paul invited all of the patients walking by the chapel to be their guests. Their ceremony was filled with gurneys and wheelchairs, and Ann recalled it as “perfect.”
Paul was instrumental in bringing the first CT scanner to the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1973. This was the second scanner installed in the United States. He was put in charge of it and took to his new work with great energy and enthusiasm. He and his colleagues published many of the seminal papers on CT of the brain. In 1975, he organized an international conference on CT scanning in Hamilton, Bermuda, the first of what became an international gathering of experts in the field sponsored annually by the Department of Radiology at Massachusetts General. It was at the meeting that Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, for the first time, publicly showed the earliest images obtained on the EMI “total body” scanner. After the audience applause died down, Sir Godfrey confessed that the liver and spleen we had just seen were his own!
As the recognized expert in the field, it was only fitting that Paul should write the first definitive textbook on the subject. In 1975, he coauthored, with Dr. W. R. Scott, Computed Tomography of the Brain and Orbit, the first textbook on CT scanning. It immediately became a standard in the world of neuroradiology. His stentorian British accent and precise diction still ring in the ears of radiologists around the world who had the privilege to hear one of the many invited lectures or scientific papers he delivered in the early years of CT imaging. During those years, Paul served on a number of national committees and in 1980 began a 10-year term as associate editor of the fledgling American Journal of Neuroradiology, helping to set its high scientific standards and achieve its international stature.
Although he enjoyed skiing, big-game hunting in Africa during the 1960s and 1970s, and extensive travel that took him to nearly every major city in the world, Paul would have rather been sailing. He owned two sailboats (both named Crescendo). The second version was a Cal 39, which he frequently sailed in the Newport-Bermuda race and the Monhegan race. He never won a Bermuda race, but one year, when he was doing quite well, the mast snapped in half. He was fortunate to have enough fuel to make it to Bermuda under power. Sailing was a family affair, and his daughter, Christina recalled, “I remember that boat fondly, as I did so much sailing with my dad on it. I did quite a few overnight races with him, and did the delivery from Bermuda to Marblehead after the repair from the dismasting. That trip meant a great deal to me.” The competition of sailboat racing energized Paul, and after one of the Bermuda races, Christina remembered, “My dad was as happy as I’d ever seen him. They didn’t win, I’m not sure they even placed in the top five in their class, but he had been on the water for days with good friends, he was in beautiful Bermuda, and life didn’t get any better.”
After retirement in 1992, he an Ann continued their life at Ledgetop and the Boston Yacht Club, a few miles away, enjoying the pleasures of being near children and grandchildren. Ann continued to raise and show Rhodesian ridgebacks and Paul pursued other pastimes such as painting, tennis, reading, and scrimshaw on discs of elephant tusk he brought back from a 1973 African safari . He also enjoyed playing the violin and painting. He and Ann traveled extensively, floating down the Amazon for a month and taking an extended trip to New Zealand. Had he lived, there were plans for a 50-day trip down the west coast of Africa.
Paul is survived by his wife Ann New; daughters Christina Pandapas of Marblehead and Stephanie Berube of Holliston, Massachusetts; grandchildren Nicholas Pandapas, Christopher Pandapas, Jessica Berube, and Jonathan Berube; and brother Eric New, of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is remembered by his many friends and colleagues for his devoted service to the American Society of Neuroradiology, his pivotal role in bringing the American Journal of Neuroradiology to maturity, and his scientific contributions during a critical period in the development of the specialty of neuroradiology. Paul was possessed of a keen intellect, the gift of elocution, and a finely honed sense of humor. Those who knew him will miss the warm camaraderie and scientific excitement shared with him when American neuroradiology was coming of age.
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