Crowell Beard, MD
Crowell Beard, MD |
Crowell Beard is renowned as one of the three major founders of Oculoplastic Surgery. His career accomplishments include helping found ASOPRS, developing Oculoplastics as a specialty, authoring the first definitive textbook on ptosis, training many of the second generation of Oculoplastics preceptors, and developing the eponymously named Cutler-Beard staged bridge flap. Beard was one of three sons of J. Edgar Beard and Mabel Crowell Beard. The Beards were an early pioneer family in the Napa Valley and co-owners of the Thompson, Beard & Sons mercantile store in Napa. Crowell was born in Napa, California, on May 23, 1912. He attended the local schools in Napa for his early education and, as a member of a musically talented family, learned to play the violin. Following his father’s pathway, he attended the University of California at Berkeley, initially studying Chinese, economics, and statistics before changing his major to pre-medicine. At UC-Berkeley Crowell transitioned from playing violin to playing the banjo on a weekly half-hour radio show in Berkeley. |