John Kingsbury Frost (c. 1922 – 1990) was an American physician specializing in the field of cytopathology - the microscopic study of individual body cells to detect cancer and other diseases.
[1] In 1956 he took a position as an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for his entire career until his retirement in 1989.
[2] He was the author of 347 publications,[3] including the definitive monograph on the subject of cytopathology, The Cell in Health and Disease, published in 1969[4] with a second edition in 1986.
[5] In addition to diagnostic services and professional training, his laboratory also carried out research, notably in the creation of the dyes (stains) which are used to highlight the characteristics of the cells so they can be evaluated.
The most popular nuclear stain, the Gill hematoxylin series,[6] was created in Frost's cytopathology department in the 1970s by cytotechnologist Gary W.