Carl W. Walter papers

Carl Waldemar Walter, A.B., 1928, Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts; M.D., 1932, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, was a surgeon, medical inventor, entrepreneur, and educational benefactor, who was educated at Harvard and stayed there for the duration of his career in medicine. While his most enduring contribution to medicine was the development of the plastic blood bag, his varied interests included infection control, fire prevention, hospital design, and medical education. As Clinical Professor of Surgery, he spent his forty-year career on the staff of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, and on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School. He co-founded Fenwal, Inc. for the production of equipment for temperature sensing and control. The acquisition of Fenwal, Inc. by Kidde Corp. in the 1960s allowed Walter to devote many years to fundraising efforts for both Harvard Medical School and Harvard University.

Carl Waldemar Walter was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 30, 1905, the son of Leda Agatha and Carl Frederick Walter. The 1910 U.S. Census identified him as white. Upon graduation from West High School in Cleveland, where he concentrated on Latin, chemistry and running track, he was offered scholarships to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan and Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. A meeting with Elliott C. Cutler, then Professor of Surgery at Western Reserve University, Cleveland, and chairman of the Harvard Club of Cleveland convinced him to attend Harvard University. After graduating with a cum laude degree in 1928 (earned while working at numerous jobs to pay for his education), he was planned to become an industrial chemist when Cutler asked him to apply to Harvard Medical School. He received his M.D. in 1932 and took a surgical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital where Cutler was becoming Chief of Surgery.

It was at the beginning of his residency that Walter developed his lifelong interest in the prevention of infection. Given the authority by Cutler to investigate hospital patients and staff as well as the hospital physical plant, Walter was able to combine his medical knowledge with his chemical and engineering skills to identify the causes of various infectious outbreaks: sewage entering the hospital water supply, endemic carriers of disease on the hospital staff, and the use of improperly sterilized surgical instruments. He also developed and patented several devices to help combat infections in hospitals, including a washer-sterilizer for surgical instruments, and time- and temperature-control locks for autoclaves, sterilizers, and dishwashers.

Walter's concern for nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections evolved into a broader awareness of hospital safety, especially regarding the use of electrical equipment, and the presence of flammable substances (such as certain anesthetics). He spent many years as the official representative of the American College of Surgeons to the National Fire Protection Association and was instrumental in formulating electrical codes for hospital power supplies and the regulation of flammable materials. At the same time as his career at Harvard was evolving, Walter had a second vocation as an industrialist. Along with two neighbors--an inventive refrigerator technician and a World War I veteran looking for an investment for his military--he founded Fenwal, Inc. Originally a small organization, the company became prosperous during World War II as a supplier of temperature-controlled switches for military aircraft. Later, Fenwal produced fire and explosion suppression systems that were used in buildings, communication satellites and even NASA space vehicles.

Walter's professional interests in infection and industry intersected with the innovative use of plastic for blood collection and storage systems. Although he had been interested in improving upon the inefficient system of glass bottles and rubber tubing then in use since the beginning of his surgical residency, it was not until the development of flexible plastics in the late 1940s that he was able to create a functional blood bag. The prototype was constructed in his garage over Thanksgiving weekend in 1947, but the bag with its attached needles and tubing (to ensure sterility and prevent clotting) was not patented until 1949. Because of complex issues regarding patenting and ownership of the device and Walter's academic status (Harvard policy did not permit him to keep the patent rights or to assign the rights to the University), Fenwal, Inc. created a subsidiary, Fenwal Laboratories, Inc., to produce and refine plastic blood collection systems, and to license the technology to other manufacturers. Although the blood bag was used by the Army during the Korean War, and its development was promoted by the American Red Cross, Food and Drug Administration approval took over ten years. The financial drain of Fenwal Labs, Inc. on its parent company was so great that it had to be sold. While Walter did not gain any personal financial benefit from his invention, his reputation as an expert on the development of medical and surgical supplies meant that his advice as a consultant was sought by many well-known companies producing everything from surgical drapes to antibiotics. Walter's willingness to consult on his other areas of expertise led to numerous requests for him to inspect existing medical facilities for infection control and fire safety measures, and to discuss the architecture of new facilities in accordance with the latest innovations in hospital design.

Throughout his career, Walter's business capabilities were useful for work at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and Harvard Medical School. At the hospital, he organized the Central Service Department and reformed the hospital's record and patient identification systems. Whenever the hospital added new facilities, Walter provided input on everything from parking facilities to landscaping to ventilation.

After his retirement in 1972, Harvard Medical School tapped Walter to head its Alumni Fund. Thereafter, what had been a well-intentioned but somewhat relaxed fundraising effort became a more professional operation with a computerized alumni directory, an elaborate system of class and regional agents, and a new emphasis on corporate donors. During his seventeen years as treasurer and head of the Harvard Medical School Alumni Fund, Walter collected more than $20 million, of which he himself contributed $8 million. Much of his fundraising was directed towards teaching efforts at the medical school; during his life he not only established a fund to support fellowships for student research and several life income trusts but also created funds for several professorships. In addition, he worked to bring researchers in contact with corporate funding.

Walter taught courses in asepsis and surgical techniques, gave many lectures and speeches in the U.S. and abroad on varied topics, and produced educational films. He also conducted seminars for operating room nurses in order to acquaint them with the latest techniques for infection control and hospital safety. A vocal proponent of the use of animals in medical education and research, he was involved in efforts both to combat anti-vivisection (anti-animal experimentation) legislation and to improve the conditions in which laboratory animals were kept.

Walter married Margaret Davis, whom he had known since junior high school in Cleveland, and they had six children: Carl E. Walter, David A. Walter, Martha (Walter) LeRoy, Alice (Walter) O’Brien, Linda (Walter) Van deCar, and Margaret (Walter) Rice. The couple lived in Holliston, Massachusetts, until Walter’s death on May 5, 1992, from complications following a stroke the previous December. He is memorialized by an amphitheater bearing his name in the Medical Education Center at Harvard Medical School.