The Legacy and Obligations of the Head and Neck Surgeon The 2009 Hayes Martin Lecture

I am delighted and extraordinarily honored to be asked to give the Hayes Martin Lecture to what is now the American Head and Neck Society. This lecture represents the crown jewel of the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons, a society that was composed primarily of general and plastic surgeons who focused on head and neck trauma and malignancies. The list of past Hayes Martin lecturers represents the greats of this specialty-names that for me had extraordinary impact and yet to those generationally behind me are, in all likelihood, unfamiliar: Oliver Bears, Charles Harrold, Harvey Baker, Richard Jesse, Milton Edgerton. Each led their society with a strong hand and attempted to keep the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery (composed predominantly of head and neck-focused otolaryngologists) at bay. A generation of conflict and contempt gradually seeped away to measured regard from both societies eventuating in a fraternal consolidation of the 2 into what is now the American Head and Neck Society. On May 13, 1998, the American Head and Neck Society evolved from a merger of the American Society for Head and Neck Surgery and the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons. The discipline has benefited measurably.