Dr. Steel served as the chief of orthopedic surgery at Shriners Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, where he established the first pediatric spinal cord injury center in 1980. Dr. Steel made significant contributions to the field of orthopedic surgery: he developed the triple innominate osteotomy for acetabular dysplasia and pioneered a nontraditional approach using a hanging gravity correction cast to treat extreme lumbar kyphosis.
He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before receiving his medical degree from the Philadelphia-based Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where he later served on the faculty. He earned a doctorate in anatomy from the University of Washington in Seattle, and his dissertation led him to develop Steel’s Rule of Thirds.
Dr. Steel founded the Eastern Orthopaedic Association and served two terms as its president from 1969 to 1971. He was a founding member of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society, now known as the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America. He wrote extensively and held 71 visiting professorships worldwide. Dr. Steel urged his colleagues to pursue their nonmedical interests, and a group of his patients founded the Howard H. Steel Orthopaedic Foundation, which funds lectureships at orthopedic association meetings on any subject except orthopedics or medicine.
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