Shadowing the Abbess: Wood Library-Museum Exhibit Designer John Byrne and His “Superior” Spouse

Son of the cryptographer behind the unsolvable secret code, Chaocipher (1918), John Francis Byrne, Jr. (1929 to 2008,upper left), designed window dressing for Manhattan department stores. When he designed to marry Broadway soprano Patricia “Pat” Neway, John observed wrily that he was also marrying a Mother Superior. Indeed Pat was the 1960 Tony Award winning singer, whose character, the Mother Abbess (lower left), had sung “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” in the originalSound of Music. After resonating as an operatic singer, she retired to acting as a sounding board for John ’s exhibit designs. Using noncomputerized, old-fashioned cut-and-paste techniques in their retirement home in East Corinth, Vermont, John fashioned the Wood Library-Museum’s early annual exhibits. Sadly, on November 29, 2008, he succumbed to lung cancer metastatic to his brain. John had battled just long enough to reach his fortieth wedding anniversary with his “Superior” wife. Papers, secrets, and blueprints (backdrop) for John Senior ’s insoluble code were eventually deposited in the National Cryptologic Museum. (Copyright © the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ Wood Library-Museum of Anesthesiology.)
Source: Anesthesiology - Category: Anesthesiology Source Type: research