Background
Normand Louis Hoerr was born on May 3, 1902 in Peoria, Illinois, United States. He was the son of Christian J. Hoerr and Lydia Dallinger.
Normand Louis Hoerr was born on May 3, 1902 in Peoria, Illinois, United States. He was the son of Christian J. Hoerr and Lydia Dallinger.
Hoerr received his early schooling in Peoria. After graduating from high school, he attended the Bradley Polytechnic Institute in Peoria (1919-1921) and the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1923. The following year he entered the University of Chicago and from that institution he received the Ph. D. degree in 1929 and the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1931.
Hoerr's professional life encompassed two major phases: at the University of Chicago, research, research training, and medical teaching occupied his attention; and at Western Reserve University School of Medicine, he was head of the department of anatomy and played a major role in one of the most far-reaching experiments in medical education. At Chicago, following a common custom, he was appointed assistant in anatomy in 1925, and instructor in anatomy in 1926, while still a graduate student. He became assistant professor of anatomy in 1933 and retained that rank until 1939, when he accepted the chair of anatomy at Western Reserve University.
During his years at Chicago, Hoerr was greatly influenced by the histologists Robert Russell Bensley and George William Bartelmez. Bensley and Hoerr ushered in the modern era of organelle chemistry with the publication of "The Preparation and Properties of Mitochondria from Guinea-Pig Liver" (1934). At this time, although the significance of mitochondria was appreciated by the cytologist, most biochemists and physiologists did not include the word in their vocabulary. When Bensley and Hoerr separated mitochondria from the liver cell, biochemists were preoccupied with the extraction and purification of the enzymes of the cell. It was not until much later that biochemists as a group began to appreciate the importance of localizing specific enzymes and biochemical functions within morphologic constituents of the cell.
In 1942, on the occasion of Bensley's seventy-fifth birthday, Hoerr organized a symposium entitled "Frontiers in Cytochemistry" and edited the proceedings, which were published in 1943. The book, which has become a classic in the field, introduced the word "cytochemistry. " The original cell fractionation procedure described by Bensley and Hoerr in 1934 has been modified and improved, but the basic principle of separating the mitochondria from other cell constituents by means of differential centrifugation remains unchanged. The subsequent localization of biochemical functions of the component organelles of the cell, made possible by their classical studies, foreshadowed the great advance made in cytochemistry since the mid-1960s.
During most of Hoerr's tenure at Chicago, the neuroanatomy course was directed by Bartelmez, with the assistance of Hoerr and of younger associates.
Hoerr's research included a histochemical study of hydrochloric acid secretion that used the freeze-drying technique, a cytological study of the adrenal cortex, a neuroanatomical study of the hindbrain of the opossum, a histophysiological study of the circulation of the spleen, an X-ray study of human skeletal development, and an anatomical study of the lymphatic drainage of the paranasal sinuses. Each of these investigations was an important contribution; collectively they illustrate the diversity of his interests.
As secretary-treasurer of the American Association of Anatomists, a post he held in 1946-1956, Hoerr served as adviser, colleague, and friend to other anatomists. In 1958 he was named president-elect of the association, but he died before taking office as president. Hoerr's appointment as Henry Wilson Payne professor of anatomy, and head of the department, at Western Reserve University came at a germinal time in the history of that institution.
Hoerr served as associate editor of Anatomical Record (1948-1958), and as coeditor of the New Gould Medical Dictionary carried that publication through two editions (1949, 1956). He was also a founder and president of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society, which he helped mold into one of the finest and most active chamber music groups in the country. He died in Cleveland.
Hoerr was the students' favorite because of the clarity of his presentation and his devotion to them as individuals. In an anatomy faculty second to none in the country, he stood out as the most successful teacher.
Hoerr married Virginia Collier Gale on September 10, 1927.