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Australian pathologist, born April 5, 1912, Townsville, Queensland, died 1977.

Biography of Ralph Douglas Kenneth Reye

Ralph Douglas Kenneth Reye was the youngest of nine children of Carl Albert Hermann Reye (1862-1942), a fruit merchant from Schwarzwald, in Württemberg, Germany, and his wife Mabel Mary, née Youngson, who was born im New South Wales. He spent most of his life, however, in Sydney. He attended Townsville Grammar School and then enteres St. Paul’s College, University of Sydney, becoming M. B. and B.S. in 1937.Hhe gained his M.D. on histiocytic reticulosis in 1945.

In 1939 Reye joined the pathology department of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children. He remained at that institution for the rest of his working life.

Because of shortage of pathologists in civilian practice, Reye was not commissioned to the Australian Army Medical Corps, but he was appointed honorary captain, Reserve of Officers, in March 1941.
On January 1942 he married Corrie Sanders (died 1990), a fellow medical practitioner who became director of the Spastic Centre, Mosman, and a notable figure in the treatment and rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy.

In 1946 Reye was appointed director of pathology of the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children in Sydney, a position in which he devoted himself almost entirely to histopathology. He was the first person to describe subdermal fibrous tumours in early childhood and to observe cytoplasmic inclusions in recurring fibromas. Locally these two tumours have been referred to as Reyemona I and Reyemona II. In 1963 he described “his” syndrome.

We thank Peter Procopis, Childrens Hospital, Westmead, Sydney, for information submitted.