History of The John Hanbery Society

Dr. John Hanbery (1919-1996) attended Stanford Medical School and did his Neurosurgical training at the Montreal Neurologic Institute with Wilder Penfield and William Cone. In 1954 he was recruited to Stanford as an assistant professor of neurosurgery in the Department of Surgery. He was the driving force behind the creation of Stanford neurosurgical residency-training program, which was established and certified in 1961. He became the inaugural Professor and Executive Head of the Division of Neurosurgery in 1964.

Five years later in 1959 and 41 years after its founding, the Stanford University School of Medicine moved from San Francisco to its new location on the Stanford University Campus as the Palo Alto-Stanford Medical Center Hospital (co-owned by the City of Palo Alto). That same year Dr. Hanbery temporally left full-time academia to join neurosurgeon Dr. James Golden at the Palo Alto Clinic. He remained on the Stanford teaching faculty, however, and in 1961 he returned to Stanford full-time as Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery, where he established the very first Stanford Neurosurgery Residency training program. In 1964 Roy Cohn, MD, Chair of Surgery, appointed Dr. Hanbery Professor and Head of the Division of Neurosurgery where he would remain until 1989.

John Hanbery was known as a consummate clinician, superb technical surgeon, and leader in the development of Spine Neurosurgery and Pediatric Neurosurgery. Most notable, however, was his devotion and loyalty to Neurosurgery residents. During his tenure he trained 26 residents in diagnostic acumen, surgical proficiency, clinical care, as well as compassionate bedside manner.

In 1974 former residents honored Dr. Hanbery by establishing the John W. Hanbery Neurosurgical Society, a non-profit organization of Stanford Resident Alumni and honored guest members that meet annually to present scientific and clinical papers.

History of the Stanford Neurosurgery Residency

Stanford Neurosurgery Department Photo 1965

At the time of program inception in 1964, the Stanford Neurosurgery Residency accepted one trainee per year for a 6-year post internship program. This consisted of four years of clinical training in neurosurgery - two at the University Hospital, one at the Palo Alto VA, and one at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. Additionally there were 6 months of Neurology training at the Institute of Neurology in Queens Square, England and 6 months of Neuropathology training with the eminent Lucien Rubinstein at Stanford. There was one year of dedicated research time included in the training program. Dr. Hanbery retired in 1989.

Dr. Gerald D. Silverberg was named acting head of the Division of Neurosurgery at the time of Dr. Hanbery’s retirement. He had trained in Neurosurgery at Stanford with Dr. Hanbery. While on the faculty he was the microsurgeon and was known for his work on the use of deep hypothermia and cardiac arrest for the treatment of giant cerebral aneurysms. He was instrumental in obtaining Departmental status for Neurosurgery at Stanford in 1990. He also charted a course for encouraging subspecialty practice of Neurosurgery at Stanford. He initially started as the acting chair and then formally was appointed as permanent chair of the newly formed Department after the formal search was terminated by the Dean due to financial constraints and opinion of the Dean that the internal candidate was suitable. This triggered a protest by Dr. Francis K. Conley, a full professor within the department. Allegations of conduct and behavior reminiscent of sexual harassment were raised against the school and the Dean felt pressure to rescind his appointment and instead appointed Dr. Lawrence M. Shuer as acting Chair on March 20, 1992.

Dr. Shuer trained under Drs. Hanbery, Silverberg and Conley and kept the department together during the turbulent times. He successfully appealed an adverse action proposal from the Neurosurgical RRC to place the program on probation for lack of a permanent chair. Ultimately, a national search resulted in Dr. Gary K Steinberg to be selected as the Chair of the Department on December 1, 1995.

Under Dr. Steinberg the Department grew exponentially from 5 clinical faculty to 59 faculty in clinical and research positions. During that period, Stanford’s infrastructure grew with the addition of new Adult, Children’s, VA and County Hospitals. The Department now has faculty to cover the subspecialty areas of Cerebrovascular, Neuro-interventional, Functional, Neuro-oncology, Stereotactic Radiosurgery, Skull Base, Epilepsy, Spine, Trauma, Peripheral Nerve and Pediatric disciplines. The training program has grown to train three residents a year for a total of 7 years with the internship incorporated into the training program. The residents rotate through the Adult, Children’s, County, V.A. and Redwood City Kaiser Hospitals. There are now two dedicated years for research in the middle of the training schedule. There are also post residency fellowships in Cerebrovascular, Neuro-interventional, Radiosurgery, Skull Base, Spine and Pediatric Neurosurgery.

Dr. Steinberg stepped down as Chair in 2020 and Dr. Michael Lim was recruited to be Chair. Dr. Lim was a Hopkins Med School graduate who trained in Neurosurgery at Stanford. He then went on to become a very accomplished researcher, teacher and clinician at Hopkins. Dr. Lim continues to foster excellence in Neurosurgery through Clinical care, Research and Education. The department performs over 4,000 neurosurgical operations each year. The faculty and trainees are among the most diverse for any Neurosurgical Department in North America.

Neurosurgery Department Photo 2022

The John Hanbery Society is a non-profit organization

Contact: admin@hanberysociety.org