by John A. Tucker, MD

President Ward, Drs Fee and Homer, members and guests. The Daniel C. Baker, Jr, lectureship was established to honor the memory of Dr Daniel Baker and acknowledge his many contributions, not only to the ALA, but also to our discipline, otolaryngology head and neck surgery.

The Daniel C. Baker, Jr, Lectureship Committee for 1996 was composed of Drs Jonas Johnson, Hugh Biller, and John Tucker. We are pleased to introduce to you Dr Eugene N. Myers as the 1996 Baker Lecturer. Originally a native of Philadelphia, Dr Myers has a rich history of service to the American Laryngological Association. Gene served as Secretary of the ALA from 1982 to 1988. He subsequently served as President-Elect and then President in 1990. Eugene Myers was acknowledged in 1993 by the prestigious Newcomb Award and in 1995 as a Guest of Honor of the Society.

Gene Myers is the son of a distinguished otolaryngologist. He has a heritage of and a lifetime commitment to otolaryngology. He is the past president of the American Society of Head and Neck Surgery, a recent past president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, and current president of the American Board of Otolaryngology. His leadership has contributed in a very meaningful way to the development of our specialty in the last 20 years.

Gene Myers is an outstanding clinical educator. Over the years he has contributed hundreds of manuscripts to the literature and has been a major participant on many major editorial boards. Further, he has helped clarify surgical therapy and has been an outstanding proponent for surgical intervention. His leadership has impacted upon us all. It is with great pride that I introduce Dr Eugene Nicholas Myers as the Daniel C. Baker, Jr, Lecturer for 1996.

Thank you very much, John. I am very touched by your introduction, particularly coming from John Tucker, whom I have known, I am quite sure, longer than anybody in this room, since, believe it or not, we played football together at the University of Penn many years ago. I wanted to thank Paul Ward, who has done a great job this year as the President, for having me here, and also the Baker award committee.

I feel highly honored, and as you heard, my association with the ALA goes way back. It is really my favorite organization, and I feel very gratified to see the wonderful progress that the ALA has made over the years, to be a real trendsetter, to give a platform for people to say all the things that they feel are really important about the larynx. This is where people want to say that.

I didn't know Dan Baker personally. He was the Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at Columbia for many years and was a past president of the ALA and recipient of the Newcomb Award. I heard a lot about him, because in the year that I spent with John Conley, Dr Conley was a clinical professor at Columbia and knew Dr Baker very well. In fact, he knew him so well that Dr Baker's son married John Conley's daughter. So I heard lots about Dan Baker, but I never had the opportunity to meet him. It's a privilege to give this lecture named for him.

The topic for today is "The Management of the Neck in Cancer of the Larynx." I know that in the past, having heard many of the Baker lecturers, they tend to be sort of philosophical, but I really don't consider myself being a philosopher, and I felt that I would be ill at ease trying to do that. I couldn't talk about health care, because whatever I talked about today would be gone tomorrow and changed somehow. If I told you about my thoughts about residency training, it would be different by the time the words passed through my lips. So I thought that I would talk about something I know, which is the management of the neck in cancer of the larynx. I want to thank Johannes Fagan, who is here today in the audience. Johannes is from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. He has been a fellow with us this year in head and neck surgery, and he has done the really important legwork in organizing this talk.