In 1920 he was named a Rosenwald Fellow in Medicine—an award targeting top black medical students—and thereby received $1,200 ($18,000 in current dollar terms).[17][16] Lawless engaged in graduate studies at the Vanderbilt Clinic of Columbia Medical School and at Harvard Medical School.[10][2][16] He held a fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He received further postgraduate training outside the United States at the University of Paris's premier dermatology program at L'Hôpital St. Louis, as well as at the University of Freiburg in Germany, and the University of Vienna in Austria.[1][10][13][2] He noted later that "it was a noteworthy fact in my own life experience that of the twelve letters [of recommendation for study abroad] that I received, eleven were from Jewish physicians."[13]
Career
After graduating in 1924, Lawless returned to Chicago to open his dermatology practice on Chicago's South Side in a poor, black neighborhood.[1][10] He became an instructor and research fellow at Northwestern University Medical School the same year, and taught there as a professor of dermatology and syphilology until 1941.[1][15][18][14] He helped establish the university's first medical laboratories,[18] and established the first clinical laboratory for dermatology.[citation needed]
Lawless performed research on syphilis, leprosy, sporotrichosis, and other skin diseases.[18] In 1936, he helped devise a new treatment for early stage syphilis (electropyrexia, which artificially raised a patient's temperature, and then injected the patient with therapeutic drugs).[18] He also developed special treatments for skin damaged by arsenical preparations, which were commonly used during the 1920s against syphilis, and was one of the first doctors to use radium to treat cancer.[18][16] Between 1921 and 1941 he published ten papers on dermatology, which including studies on warts, sporotrichosis, the
use of colloidalmercuric sulphide, arsenicals, the treatment of early syphilis with electrically induced fever, tineasycosis of the upper lip, tularemia, and congenital ichthyosiform erythroderma.[2]
A shrewd investor and businessman, he became a multi-millionaire, and had a remarkable business career.[10][11] Lawless was director of both the Supreme Life Insurance Company[15][21] and Marina City Bank. He was also a charter member, associate founder, and President of Service Federal Savings and Loan Association in Chicago.[15][16]
Philanthropy
Most of his philanthropy involved starting a number of dermatology programs in Israel. Lawless donated $160,000 ($1,700,000 in current dollar terms) in 1957 to, spearheaded a Chicago fundraising drive for, and established the 35-bed Lawless Department of Dermatology in Beilinson Hospital (later known as the Rabin Medical Center), near Tel Aviv, Israel.[12][11][13][14][16][22] He also created the T. K. Lawless Student Summer Camp Program for Talented Children for the scientific training for Israeli children at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel;[12][23] the Lawless Clinical and Research Laboratory in Dermatology of the Hebrew Medical School in Jerusalem, Israel.[23] He became well acquainted with Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president.[15] He thus repaid support received from Jewish doctors in obtaining his appointment to his position at the University of Paris.[12][2] In 1969 he said: "I'm simply trying to repay a debt of gratitude."[12] He explained his philanthropy for Israel and Jewish causes by pointing out that when he was a child in New Orleans, a Jewish peddler there was always kind to his family, a Jewish professor (Maurice Lenz) had helped him at Columbia University, and he also recalled another Jewish friend.[12][2] In the 1960s, he worked for the Israel Bonds drive and purchased a large number of the bonds.[12][11] In December 1967, on his fifth trip to Israel he made a donation establishing a fund to repair and restore ancient Biblical archeological discoveries at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, his fifth project in Israel.[24]
Lawless also supported Roosevelt University's Chemical Laboratory and Lecture Auditorium, in Chicago, and Lawless Memorial Chapel at Dillard University, in New Orleans.[25][26] In 1959, he was elected president of the Dillard University Board of Trustees.[27] In 1967, ground was first broken for the Theodore K. Lawless Gardens, in his honor and of which he was a principal, a 13-acre 514-unit middle-incomehousing project at 35th and Rhodes Avenue on Chicago's South Side.[3][28][29][30][23] He also served as chairman of the board of trustees of Talladega College, chairman of the American Missionary Association and Division of Higher Education of the Congregational and Christian Church, and director of Youth Services of the B'nai B'rith Foundation.[2]
He died in Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago at age 78 on May 1, 1971.[6][10][16] Lawless left $150,000 ($1,100,000 in current dollar terms) of his $1.25 million ($9,400,000 in current dollar terms) estate to the American Committee of the Weizmann Institute, a New York research institution.[12]
In 1954, Lawless won and became the 39th recipient of the NAACPSpingarn Medal, presented annually to a Black American of distinguished achievement, for his contributions as a "physician, educator and philanthropist".[12][20][2] In 1963 he received Roosevelt University's second annual Daniel H. Burnham Award.[31][2]Phi Beta Kappa honored him with its Distinguished Service Award in 1966 for "acts of charity and medical service".[32][33] In 1967 he received University of Kansas Distinguished Service Citation, and the City of Hope Golden Torch Award.[34][35][2] In 1970 he received the Beatrice Caffrey Youth Service Merit Award.[2]
He also received the Citation of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and the Greater Chicago Churchman Layman-of-the-Year Citation.[36][37][2]
He was also honored by having a county park in Cass County near Vandalia, Michigan named after him (Dr. T.K. Lawless Park). The park features a range of outdoor activities, including a 10-mile mountain bike trail, shelters, softball fields, and soccer fields.[38]