02/26/2020
A tribute to Evelyn J. Mackin, PT
Evelyn J. Mackin, matriarch of hand therapy, passed away on February 19, 2020. To echo her words, “she had a good run.” She would want all of us to celebrate her life and contributions to the hand therapy profession instead of weeping her loss. She was 97 years old and remained active in the hand therapy community until June 2015. Her last official contribution was celebrating Hand Therapy Week at an exhibit booth in Philadelphia sharing her passion for hand therapy.
As most of you know, she was one of the six founding members of ASHT and served as president in 1982. Today, ASHT has over 3,500 members and provides many resources to advance the art and science of the practice of hand therapy. She founded the Journal of Hand Therapy in the last quarter of 1987, served as the first editor for 10 years and worked passionately to get it indexed. In 2013, she shared that establishing the journal was her greatest accomplishment as she remarked at how far the science had come in 25 years and how important the written word was to the profession. She helped to establish the International Federation of Societies of Hand Therapy in the 1980s and served as the inaugural president in 1989 at the first IFSHT Congress. Evelyn graduated in 1944 from the University of Pennsylvania with a graduate certificate in Physical Therapy and worked in a hospital-based rehabilitation department in Philadelphia where she first met James Hunter, MD in the 1960s. She started in hand therapy working alongside James Hunter, MD, and Lawrence Schneider, MD, establishing the Hand Rehabilitation Center in Philadelphia in 1972. Their partnership and dedication to interprofessional practice led to the development of a symposium, “First Decade of Tendon Surgery” in 1974, the Hand Rehabilitation Foundation in 1975, the ongoing Philadelphia Hand Meeting in 1976, and the first edition of the textbook, Rehabilitation of the Hand in 1978. Evelyn was a teacher and mentor during the infancy of our specialty practice when few educational resources were available. This year, the Philadelphia Hand Meeting will be the 44th meeting and the 7th edition of Rehabilitation of the Hand and Upper Extremity was just published. All of these organizations and resources are essential components for hand therapy education, and will always be part of Evelyn’s legacy. She was a firm believer in sharing what you know – PASS IT ON.
Evelyn J. Mackin was a kind friend, colleague, teacher to many within the regional, national and international hand therapy and surgery communities. She inspired us to strive for excellence in the care provided to our patients and to keep elevating our practice through research. Although she shared much of her life with all of us in the profession, she was a beloved mother, grandmother, aunt, wife, sister, cousin and friend. She will be missed by her family and close friends. She was a traveler, dog lover, bridge player and occasional golfer. She lived her life to the fullest and made the most out of very moment. In her 2011 foreword for the 6th edition of Rehabilitation of the Hand and Upper Extremity, she wrote: The Chinese say: “May you live in interesting times.” I have.
A funeral service, focused on her personal life, will be held on March 19, 2020 at the Christ Church in Philadelphia. Tributes for her professional achievements and contributions will be held at future hand therapy meetings.
submitted by Jane Fedorczyk, PT, PhD, CHT
