To the Trustees of the Newberry Library:
I am sorry to have to report the death of C. Frederick Kittle, M.D., Trustee of the
Newberry since 2000. Fred died on Sunday, October 18, at the age of 93.
Fred Kittle was a distinguished cardio-thoracic surgeon, who received his medical
degree from the University of Chicago in 1945 after completing his undergraduate work
in 1942 at Ohio University, in his native Athens, Ohio. His residency in general and
thoracic surgery took place at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He rose through
the ranks of the School of Medicine at the University of Kansas before returning to
Chicago, where he headed the Section of Cardio-vascular Surgery at the University of
Chicago School of Medicine and was an attending surgeon at Cook County Hospital. In
1973 he became a professor of surgery at Rush Medical School, and practiced at Rush
Medical Center until his retirement.
He was the author of some 200 professional articles and was deeply involved
with the leadership of several major professional societies. At Ohio University he
graduated as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and later received several alumni awards.
The most recent (2004), the Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Award, recognized
“remarkable achievements in professional endeavors and community service, . . . [as
well as] unflagging dedication to the [University’s] undergraduate college and its
students.”
A long-standing interest in the history of medicine propelled Fred into collecting,
beginning with works on medical travels. During the 1990s he assembled one of the
greatest-ever collections of materials on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the Doyle family.
It was symbolically appropriate that his first acquisition toward this collection was
Conan Doyle’s hand-written lecture, “The Romance of Medicine,” given in 1910 at St.
Mary’s Hospital Medical School, London. The collection includes a vast number of first
editions, manuscript materials written by Conan Doyle, personal objects, and more than
200 drawings and sketches by members of the Doyle family. In 1999 Fred decided to
give the Dr. and Mrs. C. F. Kittle Collection of Doyleana to the Newberry. Most of the
collection came to us during the next several years, and the rest, including a vast group
of letters, more recently.
Fred was a member of the Caxton Club, serving as its president in 1999-2001.
His passion for, skill at, and story-telling about collecting was legendary among
Caxtonians. In 2006, he and I decided to establish a Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Sherlock
Holmes Symposium, which takes place on a Saturday morning in late September or
October during most years. The purpose of the occasion is to explore, through three
lectures, the age of Conan Doyle and his most famous creation. This year’s symposium
will occur this coming Saturday, October 24. Fred knew an enormous amount about
Conan Doyle and his era, and he was delighted to have this forum for Conan Doyle
scholarship at the Newberry.
Fred and his first wife had four children, who in turn had thirteen children of
their own. Fred has been married since 1981 to Ann Bates, whom many of you know.
Ann arranged a telephone conversation between Fred and me in midsummer this year,
which was the last time I talked with him. Ann’s address is 811 South Lytle Street,
Apartment 510, Chicago, IL 60607.
Fred will be buried in Athens, Ohio, this coming Saturday, which would have
been his 94th birthday. On November 7, there will be a funeral mass for him at 10:00
a.m., at Notre Dame de Chicago, 1335 West Harrison Street, followed by a reception in
the church building.
David