Dr. Pearl Kendrick - Surviving Whooping Cough

Bacteriologist

Born: August 24, 1890, Wheaton, Illinois, U.S.A.
Died: October 8, 1980, Grand Rapids, Michigan, U.S.A.

Pearl Kendrick was a pioneering scientist whose research led to the creation of the first effective whooping cough vaccine, saving thousands of children’s lives.

In the 1930s, whooping cough, also called pertussis, was one of the deadliest childhood diseases in the United States. Each year, the illness claimed the lives of about 6,000 Americans, and nearly all of the victims were children under the age of five. In Michigan, infectious diseases made up 35 percent of all deaths. Grand Rapids faced a crisis when a major outbreak struck in 1932. That same year, a young scientist named Pearl Kendrick arrived, ready to make a difference.

Pearl Kendrick was born on August 24, 1890, in Wheaton, Illinois, and raised in upstate New York. She had nearly died of whooping cough at age three, an experience that likely fueled her commitment to fighting the disease. Kendrick studied zoology at Syracuse University, graduating in 1914. Like many educated women at the time, she first became a science teacher in St. Johnsville, New York, where she worked for five years.

In 1917, Kendrick enrolled at Columbia University to study bacteriology under Hans Zinsser, a leading expert in immunology. This training helped her secure a research assistant job at the New York State Department of Health in 1919, a rare achievement for women in science during that era.

Kendrick’s career soon took her to Michigan. In 1920, Dr. C.C. Young, the state’s director of laboratories, invited her to study syphilis. She proved herself as a skilled scientist, and by 1926 she was promoted to Associate Director of Laboratories in Grand Rapids. She also continued her studies at the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University, where she deepened her knowledge of the immune system and earned a Doctor of Science degree in 1932.

When she returned to Grand Rapids, Kendrick set her sights on whooping cough. That year she recruited Grace Eldering, another bacteriologist, to join her efforts. Together, they began collecting samples from sick children across the city, often going door-to-door. Their careful research provided the foundation for a vaccine.

By January 1933, they had created their first experimental vaccine. Although they had little experience with clinical trials, they tested it on 1,592 children, 712 received the vaccine, while 880 served as a control group. The results were dramatic. In the control group, 63 children came down with whooping cough, many very sick. Among the vaccinated group, only four children got sick, and none of the cases were serious.

At first, many in the medical community doubted their results. But the respected epidemiologist Wade Frost visited, reviewed their work, and encouraged them to continue. They began a larger, more careful study, but soon faced another challenge: the Great Depression. Funding for research was scarce, and their project nearly stalled.

Help arrived in 1936, when First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited their lab. Impressed by their work, she helped them secure support through the Works Progress Administration. With new funding, Kendrick and Eldering tested more than 4,200 children. The results confirmed that their vaccine worked.

In 1944, as World War II continued, the American Medical Association added the whooping cough vaccine to its list of recommended immunizations. Over the next decade, whooping cough cases in the United States dropped by more than half. Deaths from the disease fell from more than 7,500 in 1934 to only ten by 1970.

Kendrick did not stop there. She helped develop the combined diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus vaccine, which is still used today. She also traveled internationally to promote vaccines, working to improve immunization programs in Latin America and the Soviet Union. Her leadership helped set global standards for vaccine safety.

Pearl Kendrick dedicated her life to science and public health. Her work saved thousands of children in her own time and continues to protect millions around the world today. In 1983, she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame. She passed away in 1980, but her legacy lives on in every child spared from whooping cough.

References:
“Pearl Kendrick.” Michigan Women Forward, 12 Sept. 2024, miwf.org/celebrating-women/michigan-womens-hall-of-fame/pearl-kendrick.
Shapiro-Shapin, Carolyn. “Pearl Kendrick, Grace Eldering, and the Pertussis Vaccine.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Aug. 2010, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3298325.
“The Trailblazer.” Bentley Historical Library, bentley.umich.edu/features/the-trailblazer.

Keywords:
Science, Innovation, Courage, Perseverance, Responsibility, Selflessness, Make a Difference, Take Risks for Others

View Discovery Award projects about this Unsung Hero:
‍Pearl Kendrick - Discovery Award 2023