He attended Northwestern University, interrupting his undergraduate studies to serve in the United States Army for three years during the Second World War.
[1] After a three-year period at Columbus Children's Hospital, he returned to Johns Hopkins in 1960 to take over from Wilkins as the co-director of pediatric endocrinology with Claude Migeon.
[1][3] In 1974, he moved to the University of Virginia School of Medicine as chair of pediatrics, a position which he held until 1987.
[1][3] In 1978 he conducted one of the first trials of growth hormone use in adults, wondering about its anti-aging effects, but did not find any benefits.
[1] He proposed the theory of "psychosocial dwarfism" after reporting on a reversible form of hypopituitarism seen in children who had endured severe emotional stress,[3] and established a program in Virginia in which school nurses measured children's heights as a screening tool for domestic abuse.