PIONEERING DONOR FROM RUTLAND DIES
By Lee Hammel TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
A man who grew up in Rutland and became a donor in what is recognized as the first successful kidney transplant 56 years ago died Monday from complications of heart surgery.
Ronald Lee Herrick, 79, of Belgrade, Maine, died in Augusta Rehabilitation Center in Maine with Cynthia Herrick, his wife of 51 years, and Virginia Griffin of Rutland, his younger sister, there.
Mr. Herrick hit the headlines when he donated a kidney Dec. 23, 1954, to his identical twin brother, Richard Herrick, in what the United Network for Organ Sharing recognizes as the first successful organ transplant. The 5-1/2-hour operation at what is now Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston kept Richard Herrick, 23, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, alive for eight more years.
The lead surgeon in the operation, Joseph Murray, won the Nobel Prize.
“This operation rejuvenated the whole field of transplantation,” Murray, 91, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home in Wellesley. “There were other people studying transplants in four or five different countries, but the fact that it worked so well with the identical twins was a tremendous stimulus.”
Donating an organ is never an easy choice, but the uncertainty facing Ronald Herrick, a U.S. Army veteran, was magnified by the fact that it was an unknown operation — not just for the donor who had to make the choice, but for the doctors who performed it.
Ms. Griffin said her oldest brother, Van Herrick, now of Barrington, R.I., said he wished to donate a kidney for Richard, who had nephritis, a disease that could be fatal. But doctors said that the best chance of success would be with Ronald, who underwent extensive testing to be sure he was an identical, not a fraternal, twin, so that rejection of the donated organ would not be a problem.
It was difficult for the entire family, Ms. Griffin said. “We wanted one brother saved, but we didn't want anything to happen to the other one, either. Nobody knew what the outcome was going to be.”
Ronald Herrick, a student at Worcester State Teachers College at the time, said, “My brother needs it to live, and I'll do it,” Ms. Griffin said.
“I never did hear him express reservations about it. Now, he may have had some — who wouldn't?”
But the night before the operation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston — now Brigham and Women's — Richard thought better of endangering his brother. “You get out and go home,” he wrote in a note to Ronald.
Ronald quickly wrote back: “I'm here and I'm going to stay here.”
Richard left the hospital five weeks later with his brother's kidney and a relationship with Claire Burta, head nurse in the recovery room, and they were married in 1956.
In the ensuing years, Ronald was not one to talk much about his selfless organ donation unless someone asked him about it, said Cynthia Herrick. But he was asked about it and received the Massachusetts Humane Society medal for “outstanding courage” in 1955. He also marked the event with Dr. Murray at the 50th anniversary of the operation at the National Kidney Foundation 's 2004 U.S. Transplant Games in Minnesota and with a talk at a hotel in Copley Square in Boston.
Ms. Herrick met her future husband a year after the transplant. She lived in Marlboro and he lived in Northboro, but drove daily to a newsstand in Marlboro where he could get a Boston newspaper with horse racing results, she said.
They both were Worcester State Teachers College students and another Worcester State student who worked at the newsstand introduced them, because she knew Ms. Herrick needed a ride to school.
She and several other students who rode with Mr. Herrick paid him $3 a week to drive them. Ms. Herrick said the others eventually got their own cars, and it was just the two of them driving in, she said, but he continued charging her the $3, even after they got engaged.
A graduate of Rutland High School, which stood where the town library is now, Mr. Herrick taught math for 37 years at Northboro High School, Northboro Junior High School — across the hall from where his wife taught English — Algonquin Regional High School in Northboro, Winthrop Junior High School and Winthrop Senior School in Maine and at the University of Maine in Augusta.
He grew up on a family farm in Rutland and returned to his passion when he bought a farm in 1970 in Mount Vernon, Maine, cutting 20 acres of hay and raising up to 12 heifers at a time.
“We weren't the type to have big celebrations,” Ms. Herrick said. They celebrated their 50th anniversary with his sister at the LongHorn Steakhouse in Augusta.
“He was a wonderful man, a steadfast person, very smart, very kind, generous, very helpful,” she said. Added his sister, “He was a very good person, very kind, decent person who did things for other people and never expected anything in return.”
Donating an organ is never an easy choice, but the uncertainty facing Ronald Herrick, a U.S. Army veteran, was magnified by the fact that it was an unknown operation — not just for the donor who had to make the choice, but for the doctors who performed it.
Ms. Griffin said her oldest brother, Van Herrick, now of Barrington, R.I., said he wished to donate a kidney for Richard, who had nephritis, a disease that could be fatal. But doctors said that the best chance of success would be with Ronald, who underwent extensive testing to be sure he was an identical, not a fraternal, twin, so that rejection of the donated organ would not be a problem.
It was difficult for the entire family, Ms. Griffin said. “We wanted one brother saved, but we didn't want anything to happen to the other one, either. Nobody knew what the outcome was going to be.”
Ronald Herrick, a student at Worcester State Teachers College at the time, said, “My brother needs it to live, and I'll do it,” Ms. Griffin said.
“I never did hear him express reservations about it. Now, he may have had some — who wouldn't?”
But the night before the operation at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston — now Brigham and Women's — Richard thought better of endangering his brother. “You get out and go home,” he wrote in a note to Ronald.
Ronald quickly wrote back: “I'm here and I'm going to stay here.”
Richard left the hospital five weeks later with his brother's kidney and a relationship with Claire Burta, head nurse in the recovery room, and they were married in 1956.
In the ensuing years, Ronald was not one to talk much about his selfless organ donation unless someone asked him about it, said Cynthia Herrick. But he was asked about it and received the Massachusetts Humane Society medal for “outstanding courage” in 1955. He also marked the event with Dr. Murray at the 50th anniversary of the operation at the National Kidney Foundation 's 2004 U.S. Transplant Games in Minnesota and with a talk at a hotel in Copley Square in Boston.
Ms. Herrick met her future husband a year after the transplant. She lived in Marlboro and he lived in Northboro, but drove daily to a newsstand in Marlboro where he could get a Boston newspaper with horse racing results, she said.
They both were Worcester State Teachers College students and another Worcester State student who worked at the newsstand introduced them, because she knew Ms. Herrick needed a ride to school.
She and several other students who rode with Mr. Herrick paid him $3 a week to drive them. Ms. Herrick said the others eventually got their own cars, and it was just the two of them driving in, she said, but he continued charging her the $3, even after they got engaged.
A graduate of Rutland High School, which stood where the town library is now, Mr. Herrick taught math for 37 years at Northboro High School, Northboro Junior High School — across the hall from where his wife taught English — Algonquin Regional High School in Northboro, Winthrop Junior High School and Winthrop Senior School in Maine and at the University of Maine in Augusta.
He grew up on a family farm in Rutland and returned to his passion when he bought a farm in 1970 in Mount Vernon, Maine, cutting 20 acres of hay and raising up to 12 heifers at a time.
“We weren't the type to have big celebrations,” Ms. Herrick said. They celebrated their 50th anniversary with his sister at the LongHorn Steakhouse in Augusta.
“He was a wonderful man, a steadfast person, very smart, very kind, generous, very helpful,” she said. Added his sister, “He was a very good person, very kind, decent person who did things for other people and never expected anything in return.”
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