Dr. Richard Blandau (1911–1998)THOMAS H. SHEPARD*Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195

Richard Blandau, an internationally known leader inresearch on reproduction and a member of our Society,died on May 11, 1998 at age 86 of pancreatic cancer. Hiswife preceded him in death in 1996.

If you use rats as a model for studying teratology, youwill find the techniques described largely by Blandau’searly studies. These included the onset of estrus andtime of ovulation (Blandau and Soderwall, ’41), lengthof heat (Blandau et al., ’41), transport of sperm in thefemale tract (Blandau and Money, ’44), and the numberof sperm found in various segments of the female tract(Blandau and Odor, ’52). Dick was a fellow graduatestudent with Jim Wilson, and both have related to methe following story. Late one night they were studyingreproduction of the rat in an old attic laboratory. Totheir surprise, a wild male rat entered their area andthey decided to observe his technique. They wereamazed to see that the male culled the females bystimulating their hindquarters, and those that were inestrus assumed a lordotic position with laidback quiver-ing ears! Since then this has been the most efficientmethod of determining estrus in the rat, and has beenused by many of our medical students while visiting ourcolonies at midnight. Some of these students are nowfull professors, so no names will be given.

My first experience with Dick was as a freshman atthe University of Rochester Medical School. As part of afinal oral examination in histology, he asked me toidentify a slide of tissue which was completely foreignto me. At last I described the tissue, which turned out tobe from an embryo, and this started my 50-year obses-sion with embryonic material. I came under Dick’sinfluence again in 1955 at the University of Washingtonwhen he asked me to present some of my patients withbirth defects to his embryology class. After the presenta-tions, I stayed in the class and it gradually dawned onme that embryology was the main key to understandingthe genesis of congenital defects, the most importantproblem in pediatrics. This in part led me into a 2-yearsabbatical to learn teratology with Jim Wilson andJames Ebert. When I returned to Seattle, Dick wasAssociate Dean at the Medical School and was veryhelpful in allowing Ron Lemire and me to start ourcollection of human embryos and fetuses. Later I hadthe good fortune to review with him a grant proposalabout how nitrous oxide slowed growth in tissue-cultured cells. At our suggestion, Ray Fink, an anesthe-siologist, turned his studies to the embryo, and the first

publication on the teratogenicity of nitrous oxide re-sulted (Fink et al., ’67).

Dick Blandau was a master lecturer, and his teachingenthralled generations of medical students and col-leagues. In part his preacher father probably flavoredhis presentations. His use of clay and movies addedeven more color to the presentations. Two-hour lectureswith a stretch in the middle were standard practice.

His awards and honors are too numerous to listcompletely. They include the Isidor RubinAward, Ameri-

*Correspondence to: Thomas H. Shepard, M.D., Department of Pediat-rics, University of Washington, Box 356320, Seattle, WA 98195.

Received 4 August 1998; Accepted 10 August 1998

TERATOLOGY 58:172–173 (1998)

r 1998 WILEY-LISS, INC.

can Fertility Society (1952); the Ortho Research Award,American Fertility Society (1956 and 1969); the ViennaFilm Festival Award (1959); the Carl C. HartmanAward, Society for the Study of Reproduction (1989);and gold medal, American Society of Anatomists (1987).His cinematography was memorable, and for me theimages of rabbit ova passing into the fallopian tuberemain an indelible memory. He was president of theSociety for the Study of Reproduction, the AmericanFertility Society, the Barren Foundation, and the Ameri-can Association of Anatomists. He was an honorarymember of the American Society of Medical Illustra-tors, the Bay District Surgical Society, the SouthwestObstetric and Gynecological Society, the InternationalFallopius Society, the North Dakota Society of Obstet-rics and Gynecology, the Los Angeles Obstetrical andGynecological Society, La Sosiedad Chilena de Obstetri-cia and Ginecologia, and the International Society ofReproductive Medicine.

Dick Blandau will be remembered for his outstandingcontributions to reproductive science. He was at thesame time a gentleman of the old school.

LITERATURE CITEDBlandau, R.J., and W.L. Money (1944) Observations on the rate of

transport of spermatozoa in the female genital tract of the rat. Anat.Rec., 90:255–260.

Blandau, R.J., and D.L. Odor (1949) The total number of spermatozoareaching various segments of the reproductive tract in the femalealbino rat at intervals after insemination. Anat. Rec., 103:93–109.

Blandau, R.J., and D.L. Odor (1952) Observations on spermpenetration into the ooplasm and changes in the cytoplasmiccomponents of the fertilizing spermatozoan in rat ova. Fertil. Steril.,3:13026.

Blandau, R.J., and A.L. Soderwall (1941) Postparturitional heat andthe time of ovulation in the albino rat. Data on parturition. Anat.Rec., 81:419–431.

Blandau, R.J., J.L. Boling, and W.C. Young (1941) The length of heat inthe albino rat as determined by the copulatory response. Anat. Rec.,79:453.

Fink, B.R., T.H. Shepard, and R.J. Blandau (1967) Teratogenicity ofnitrous oxide in the rat. Nature, 214:146.

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