The pioneering surgeon Dr. Joseph Murray received the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his accomplishments in transplant surgery, including the first transplant of a human kidney from a living donor, an event that opened the door to the entire field of transplantation surgery. He was first inspired to become a surgeon by his childhood experience with a family doctor. He graduated from Harvard Medical School, but his residency was interrupted by service in World War II. During the war, he learned the techniques of plastic surgery; he later applied the methods of skin grafting to the...