Whipple became a professor of surgery at
Columbia University and
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center where he served from 1921 to 1946. He began work on the procedure for resection of the
pancreas (pancreaticoduodenectomy) in 1935 and his original technique has since been modified greatly. In 1940, he shortened the procedure into a one-stage process. During his lifetime, Whipple performed 37 pancreaticoduodenectomies. He also is known for developing the diagnostic triad for
insulinoma known as
Whipple's triad. He supervised the surgical residency of
Virginia Apgar, later advising her to pursue her medical career in the field of anaesthesiology because he knew that surgery depended on advancements in this field to progress, and he saw in Apgar the 'energy and ability' to make a significant contribution. Apgar later devised the
Apgar Score also at
Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, by which the health of newborns is evaluated to this day. Whipple was instrumental in founding the
American Board of Surgery. He also was trustee of
Princeton University and was a recipient of the 1958
Woodrow Wilson Award. Though he is not related to
George Hoyt Whipple — who named
Whipple's disease and discovered
Tropheryma whipplei — the two were lifelong friends. The Science Building at Wooster School in
Danbury, Connecticut, is named after Whipple, who served as President of Wooster's Board of Trustees when the school's founder, Rev. Aaron Coburn, died. In the later years of his life he lived in Show Low, Arizona. == References ==