A medical doctor, Crikelair was a pioneering plastic surgeon who worked to repair debilitating injuries. But in the 1950s, after working on a number of burned children, Crikelair realized that fixing burns wasn’t as good as preventing them in the first place.
Moved by “the magnitude of the burns from clothing, burns that often exceeded 50 percent of the body, burns that were certainly life-threatening,” says colleague Dr. Stanley Klatsky, Crikelair worked to set national standards on the flammability of clothing. He helped draft the Flammable Fabrics Act, which required certain clothing, especially children’s pyjamas, to resist catching fire. “Through his influence, many potential burn victims were saved,” Klatsky says.
After a teaching career at Columbia University, Crikelair retired in 1977. He died February 24 after a stroke. He was 84.