When Dr. William Fouts House, DDS, MD, died in 2012, mention was made in newspapers from LA to New York, and on the NBC nightly news. The simple reason for this reaction to his passing was that he had a considerable and beneficial impact on the world. He pioneered the use of the microscope in surgical procedures for the skull and brain, developing operations which resulted in a new field of medicine: Neurotology.

He faced criticism throughout his life for his continued innovations and advancements, most especially because he persevered not only in trying to develop a useful cochlear implant, but because he implanted patients (volunteers— collaborators, really), knowing as he did that animals could never tell us what they were hearing, and therefore unless humans were implanted, we would never know whether the sounds they were hearing were sufficient to gain access to human speech.

It was the rare professional who supported his work. At one large meeting of professionals, the doctors even voted that he should stop! But time and time again, the truth and correctness of his vision was proven by his patients, by his results.

Now, today, there is another innovation of his to prove, the single-electrode cochlear implant, which can be made and sold far, far less expensively than multiple-electrode cochlear implants.

• Dr. House’s autobiography is “Struggles of a Medical Innovator”, available from Amazon books. (We get no income from such sales.)
• Dr. House has a Wikipedia page: “William F. House”
• One of the many articles written on his passing is on-line: “Remembering Dr. William House”— Profile in The Oregonian, based on a May 2012 interview.