The terminal credential of his orthopedic training. Constantine’s specialty board certification from the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery (Incorporated 1934), dated January 27, 1951 — five years out of the Army, with a postgraduate residency completed and the Board’s multi-day oral and written examinations behind him. The landscape-format diploma, with the embossed gold Board seal at left, reads:
AMERICAN BOARD OF ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY (Incorporated 1934)
Organized through the co-operation of the American Orthopaedic Association, the Section on Orthopaedic Surgery of the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Hereby certifies that
CONSTANTINE L. JEANNOPOULOS, M.D.
has met the requirements of this Board and is hereby certified as qualified to practice the specialty of
ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY.
January 27, 1951.
Signed by the Board’s President, Secretary, and six additional examining members.
Why this matters in Constantine’s career
This is the terminal credential of Constantine’s orthopedic training — the formal recognition that he was a board-certified orthopedic specialist, not just a licensed physician. Board certification followed completion of a residency in orthopedic surgery (typically five years) plus a multi-day oral and written examination. By 1951 the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery was the gatekeeper of the specialty in the United States; certification by this Board was the difference between a “physician practicing some orthopedics” and a fully credentialed orthopedic surgeon.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1941 | Università di Roma medical diploma, 110/110 |
| 1942 | NY State medical license No. 041039 |
| 1943–1946 | US Army Medical Corps service; attached to Patton’s Third Army; WWII separation 1946 |
| 1946–1951 | Postgraduate orthopedic residency |
| 1951-01-27 | American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery certification — THIS DIPLOMA |
| 1957–1969 | NYU faculty appointments; Veterans Administration orthopedic consultancy |
| 1969 | The State (Columbia, SC) profile on VA orthopedic work |
The five-year gap between his 1946 Army separation and this 1951 specialty diploma is the orthopedic residency window — the structured postgraduate training that fed into the Board examination. The 1951 diploma is what authorized his subsequent decades of NYU faculty work and the development of his Sprengel’s-deformity sub-specialty.
About the certifying body
The American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery had been chartered in 1934 — sixteen years before Constantine’s certification — as the joint credentialing body of the three principal orthopedic organizations in the US (the American Orthopaedic Association, the AMA’s Section on Orthopaedic Surgery, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons). The Board’s authority is foundational to American orthopedic practice; certification remains the standard credential to this day.
Provenance
The diploma is preserved in Constantine’s personal papers — landscape format on heavy cardstock with the gold embossed Board seal at left. The condition of the paper and original signatures (President and Secretary visible in the lower-right block) place this as the personal copy retained by the certifying physician, not a registry-office duplicate. Companion to the Università di Roma medical diploma, the NY State medical license, and the US Army Medical Corps acceptance card — the four documents that together comprised Constantine’s medical credentials wall.
