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James B. McCormick was just 20 years old in 1945 when he launched his first laboratory product -- a Bakelite plastic-molded microscope slide box that he licensed through Central Scientific Supply Co. of Chicago. It was an auspicious start for the young scientist/inventor who would later become known as The Father of Modern Histotechnology. Many of the tools used for histological evaluation today, in fact, were first conceived and developed by Dr. McCormick in the 1960s. The McCormick tissue embedding and processing techniques, as well as his patented cryostats, microtomes, cassettes and tissue embedding chenters have changed the way tissue is processed throughout the world. Dr. McCormick eventually patented more than 40 laboratory instruments and products before the company he built Lab-Tek was purchased by Miles Laboratory in the late 1960s. Always an innovator, Dr. McCormick was later instrumental in turning around Chicago’s privately held Swedish Covenant Hospital during his tenure as chief executive there during the 1980s. He remains a member of the hospital’s pathology department and maintains an active schedule of lab and hospital board committee work. In honor of his many achievements and contributions to his field, the National Society of Histotechnology has, since 1978, awarded the prestigious J.B. McCormick award annually to an individual who displays outstanding and exceptional service to the Society. An avid collector of antique laboratory instruments, Dr. McCormick’s collection is so rare that artisans have been commissioned to reproduce many of them as teaching tools and works of fine art. Portions of his collection have been on loan to the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington D.C. Today, Dr. McCormick is an active partner in McCormick Scientific Company, which is developing the tissue processing tools and methods for the new “molecular age” of histopathology. | 