Background
Canadian physician, physiologist, and scientist, was born at West Pembroke, Me., Feb. 27, 1899, the son of Herbert Huestis and Louise (Fischer) Best. In 1921 Best, working with Frederick Grant Banting under the direction of John J. R. Macleod, succeeded in extracting the hormone insulin from a dog's pancreas. During World War II Best served as surgeon commander of the Royal Canadian Volunteer Naval Reserve and as director of the Royal Canadian Navy Medical Research Unit, where he helped initiate the project for provision of dried human serum for military use. He died on Mar. 31, 1978, in Toronto, Canada.