Dr.Christine E. Haycock (January 7, 1924 – January 23, 2008) was an American nurse and surgeon who served as acolonel in theUnited States Army Reserve, and as a professor of surgery and Director of Emergency Services at theNew Jersey Medical School.[1]
Born inMount Vernon, New York, Haycock was raised inRichmond, Virginia, andNutley, New Jersey, where she graduated fromNutley High School.[2] She attended thePresbyterian Hospital School of Nursing and earned a bachelor's degree from theUniversity of Chicago. She served in theUnited States Army duringWorld War II in theCadet Nurse Corps. After the war, she earned her medical degree from theDownstate Medical School of theState University of New York in 1952, and went on to become the first womanintern atWalter Reed Army Medical Center. In 1952, she became the first woman officer to serve as a physician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Following theKorean War, Haycock became the first woman to hold a major command in New Jersey, as head of the Army's 322nd General Hospital.[3] She completed her surgicalresidency in New York before returning toNew Jersey, where she opened a private practice in general surgery. During the course of her time with theArmy Medical Corps, she would graduate from theUS Army Command and General Staff College and theUS Army War College. She also earned a master's degree inpolitical science fromRutgers University.
Haycock joined the faculty of theUniversity of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now New Jersey Medical School) as associate professor of surgery and director of emergency services in 1968 and helped establish the trauma center atUniversity Hospital in Newark. She became known as an expert onuterine cancer and insports medicine (especially for women). She was elected aFellow of the American College of Surgeons. 1980 saw the publication of the bookSports Medicine for the Athletic Female,[4] which she edited. Haycock spent a term (1981–82) as president of theAmerican Medical Women’s Association, having been active in that organization as president of the New Jersey branch. In 1984 she retired from theArmy Medical Corps as a colonel, having served as a reservist since her time in World War II and Korea, totaling 38 years of military service.
In 2004, Haycock was awarded theAlma Dea Morani Renaissance Woman Award by theWomen in Medicine Legacy Foundation.[5]
In 2005, she was inducted into the Nutley Hall of Fame.[6]
In 2011, aWomen's History Month exhibit by theNational Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey inLawrenceville centered around Haycock's role as a pioneer for women in Army medical service.[3]
Haycock was active inwomen's fencing in the late 1940s (having been on the school team while at the University of Chicago), participating in the 1949 national championships in the foil,[7] and even gave an exhibition with another woman fencer at a 1954Japanese fencing tournament.[8] In a later interview, she recalled ruefully that her time in fencing gave her considerable practical knowledge ofbreast injuries, and that she was black-and-blue "all the time". She found the existing protection (padded jackets) inadequate for female fencers, and wore a metal protector.[9]
She alsopitched for severalsoftball teams, and while studying medicine in 1957 was pitching for theLinden, New Jersey Arians of theNational Girls' Softball League. She told a reporter that she'd taken up baseball because in her all-boy neighborhood, "it was either play ball or be lonesome." She tried out for her high schoolbaseball team, but the coach wouldn't let her play; so at age 15, she became the first female player for the Essex CountySemi-Pro League.[10] She was a photographer (elected a Fellow of thePhotographic Society of America), videographer,ham radio operator and dog breeder. An active member ofscience fiction fandom (she served as treasurer of theLunarians), Haycock was married to fellow fanSam Moskowitz; they were Guests of Honor atDisclave 9.[11]
She died January 23, 2008, at a hospice in Nutley.[12]