Editing Walter C. Alvarez (section)

==Biography==
He was born in [[San Francisco]] and spent his childhood in [[Hawaii]], where his father, [[Luis F. Alvarez]], was a government physician.  His father worked as a physician in California and Hawaii and developed a method for the better diagnosis of macular leprosy.  His sister was California artist and oil painter [[Mabel Alvarez]].  In 1910, having received his medical education in [[Stanford University]], he began his practice.

From 1913 to the end of 1925, Alvarez practiced internal medicine in San Francisco and conducted research at the [[University of California]], [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]]. He lived at 3837 Clay Street raising his family.  In 1926, he joined the [[Mayo Clinic]] practice in [[Rochester, Minnesota]] until his retirement in 1950,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nelson |first=Clark W. |date=1995-10-01 |title=Dr. Walter C. Alvarez at Mayo |url=https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(11)64368-1/abstract |journal=Mayo Clinic Proceedings |language=English |volume=70 |issue=10 |pages=924 |doi=10.4065/70.10.924 |issn=0025-6196|url-access=subscription }}</ref> where he lived at 815  5th St SW in the historic [[Pill Hill, Rochester, Minnesota|Pill Hill]] neighborhood. In 1934, he became Professor of Medicine at the [[University of Minnesota]] (Mayo Foundation) and later served as Consultant in Medicine Emeritus.

Alvarez was married to the former Harriet Skidmore Smythe<ref>{{cite news|title=Bride Born in China|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2040635/bride_born_in_china/|work=The San Francisco Call|date=16 Feb 1907|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> and the couple had four children:  Gladys, [[Luis Walter Alvarez|Luis]], Robert and Bernice. Luis later became a [[Nobel Prize]]-winning physicist. His grandson is [[Walter Alvarez]], a Professor of Geology at the [[University of California]], [[University of California, Berkeley|Berkeley]].

Beginning after his retirement in 1951, Alvarez began writing a medical column which soon became syndicated throughout North America in hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers. The ''Walter C. Alvarez Memorial Award'' is named in his honor and is presented to a member or nonmember of the [[American Medical Writers Association]] to honor excellence in communicating health care developments and concepts to the public.  He is most notable for his enlightened approach to homosexuality and his efforts to educate the medical profession and the broader public about the topic. He is regarded as an ally of the homophile movement in the 1950s-1970s.

''[[Alvarez' syndrome]]'', a syndrome of hysterical or neurotic abdominal [[bloating]] without any excess of gas in the digestive tract,<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|178|Alvarez' syndrome}}</ref> and ''Alvarez-waves'', painless uterine contractions occurring during the length of pregnancy,<ref>{{WhoNamedIt|synd|177|Alvarez-waves}}</ref> are named after him.

Alvarez was the first to investigate electric activity of a stomach and, thereby, became the founder of a new diagnostic gastroenterology branch&nbsp;— [[electrogastrogram|electrogastrography]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Alvarez W. C.|title=The electrogastrogram and what it shows|journal=[[Journal of the American Medical Association|J Am Med Assoc]]|volume=78|issue=15|pages=1116–19|date=April 15, 1922|doi=10.1001/jama.1922.02640680020008}}</ref>

He died in California in 1978.<ref>{{cite news|title=Dr. Walter Alvarez, Writer, Dies|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2040809/dr_walter_alvarez_writer_dies/|work=Santa Cruz Sentinel|date=20 Jun 1978|page=24|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>

His personal papers are held by Lane's Archives and Special Collections.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://elane.stanford.edu/aid/16_Alvarez/index.htm|title=Register of the Walter Clement Alvarez Papers 1884-1976 MSS 16|work=Lane Medical Archives|accessdate=2 July 2010|location=Stanford University Medical Center}}</ref>