Edward H. Kass

Edward Harold Kass (December 20, 1917, New York City – January 17, 1990, Lincoln, Massachusetts) was an American physician, medical school professor, medical researcher in infectious diseases, medical journal editor, and historian of medicine. He is known for his research on toxic shock syndrome and urinary tract infections.

Biography His parents were Jewish emigrants from Russia to New York City. He grew up in Manhattan's Lower East Side, where his family struggled financially. Edward H. Kass was an outstanding student, skipped several grades in public school, He supported himself at City College of New York, and later after transferring to the University of Kentucky, by selling Fuller brushes door-to-door and by washing dishes in restaurants. In 1947 he received his M.D. from the UCSF School of Medicine, where he was president of his graduating class.

From 1947 to 1949 he was an intern at the Boston City Hospital, In October 1970 he gave the IDSA presidential address. From 1967 to 1977 he was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Infectious Diseases. shortly before his death. (In 1992 the journal was renamed Clinical Infectious Diseases. For the academic year 1974–1975

Lawrence P. Garrod wrote that Edward H. Kass and Thomas A. Stamey (1928–2015) in the U.S.A. and William Ross Cattell (1928–2020), Francis William O'Grady (1925–2015), and William Brumfitt (1927–2020) in the U.K. were leading experts in the medical speciality of urology.

Kass received in 1958 an honorary M.A. from Harvard and in 1962 an honorary D.Sc. from the University of Kentucky. and in 1982 a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

Selected publications

(See Serratia marcescens.)

(reprint of 1956 article)