Andrews '40 left mark on medicine

Mason Andrews '40, a pioneer of in vitro fertilization who helped revitalize Norfolk, Va., died on Oct. 13 of pulmonary fibrosis. He was 87.

Andrews, who was the first doctor in the country to deliver a child conceived in vitro, received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins after serving as a medical officer and lieutenant in the Navy during World War II.

After his residency, Andrews returned to his hometown of Norfolk and — without federal funding — founded the Eastern Virginia Medical School, the first medical school in southeastern Virginia. In addition to chairing the medical school's department of obstetrics and gynecology, he served on Norfolk's city council for 26 years and as the city's mayor for two.

"[Norfolk] was a mess when he took it over," said T. Berry Brazelton '40, Andrews' college roommate and lifelong friend. "He brought Norfolk back."

Andrews, who in 1994 served as president of the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society, specialized in menopause, hormone replacement therapy and fertilization.

In 1978, to provide fertility options for couples who couldn't conceive normally, Andrews convinced Howard Jones, whom he had met during his residency at Johns Hopkins, to come to Norfolk. There, Jones and his wife Georgeanna founded the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, which was responsible for the first in vitro fertilization success in the country.

Judith Carr went to the Jones Institute for help conceiving. Using fertility drugs, Jones was able to time Carr's ovulation and capture an egg. The egg was mixed with Carr's husband's sperm in a Petri dish and the cells were then placed in Carr's womb. Andrews worked with the Joneses through 30 failed in vitro fertilization attempts, until he ultimately delivered Elizabeth Carr, the first test-tube baby, on Dec. 28, 1981.

"Mason Andrews always strived for excellence; he had no patience for mediocrity," Jones said.

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Andrews' daughter, Mason McDonald Andrews GS '82, said that the fertilization efforts garnered "[a] fair amount of reactions from right to life folks," who worried that embryos would be discarded in the process. Though activists formed picket lines around the institute and pressured the state to forbid the procedure, Jones said that Andrews knew his way around public policy and was able to "fend off objectors" with a "steady hand."

"[Andrews] had as much to do with in vitro fertilization as anybody else," Jones said.

At Princeton, Andrews was a member of men's crew and of Charter Club. Brazelton described him as a "very serious premed," saying that even as an undergraduate, he "always had his eye on a vision of starting a medical school."

Andrews' daughter recounted the story of her father's arrival on campus. Educated in a public school in Norfolk, Andrews called his father and told him, "you've got one more son; you'd better send him to prep school so he knows how to do this."

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She also recounted the time when, after Brazelton and others had broken all of the streetlights in Princeton, "Dad had to come and fish [Brazelton] out of jail."

At the jail, Brazelton said Andrews "looked at me with his bushy eyebrows and said, 'Oh Berry.' "

From Princeton to the fertilization clinic to the streets of Norfolk, his daughter said that Andrews "had a deep, deep commitment for helping people."