Dr. Paul “Buck” Samson (1905–1982): U.S. Olympic Swimmer and Polo Player; Noted Thoracic Surgeon

Image from Collegiate Water Polo Association

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Paul Curkeet “Buck” Samson was an American competition swimmer and water polo player who represented the United States at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. He was an elite collegiate swimmer for the University of Michigan, winning the NCAA 220-yard and 440-yard freestyle titles in 1927, as well as being a member of two national championship water polo teams. He was a recipient of the Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor in 1927 for excellence in scholarship and athletics

In 1928 he earned a place on the U.S. Olympic team, participating in both swimming and water polo. Samson swam in the men’s 4×200-meter freestyle relay. He swam for the U.S. team in the semifinal heat, helping set a world-record time of 9:38.8. The American relay went on to win the gold medal in the final with a different quartet (Austin Clapp, Walter Laufer, George Kojac, and Johnny Weissmuller) in a time of 9:36.2. Because Samson did not swim in the final race, he was not eligible to receive a medal under the Olympic rules of the time. In addition to swimming, Samson was also a member of the U.S. men’s water polo squad in Amsterdam. The American water polo team was eliminated in the quarter-finals by Hungary and thus finished outside the medals. 

1928 Olympic teammates: Buster Crabbe, George Kojac, Ray Ruddy, and Johnny Weissmuller

Samson was one of the few athletes in 1928 to compete in two different sports, alongside teammate Johnny Weissmuller. Weissmuller, already a multi-gold-medalist from 1924, also played on the 1928 water polo team, and he later became famous as a Hollywood actor portraying Tarzan in a series of films. Another of Samson’s 1928 swimming teammates was Clarence “Buster” Crabbe, who won a bronze medal in 1928 and a gold in 1932 and went on to a successful film career starring as Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers in 1930s adventure serials. 

Though Buck Samson did not match Weissmuller’s record-setting medal haul, he contributed to the U.S. team’s dominance with strong performances in relay events and national championships. Known for his quiet discipline and technical mastery, Samson often played the role of anchor in team relays and was respected for his tactical awareness in the pool.

After retiring from competitive swimming, Samson pursued medical studies, eventually becoming a surgeon. With the outbreak of World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served with distinction as a medical officer in the Pacific Theater, tending to wounded soldiers under harrowing conditions. In 1937, he moved to Oakland where he began a surgical practice. He gained the distinction of performing what was probably the first successful pneumonectomy in the overseas theater using the individual ligation technique.

Grave marker for Dr. Paul "Buck" Samson

Following the war, he returned to northern California to continue his thoracic surgery practice, specializing in the treatment of tuberculosis and empyema.  Samson started and directed the thoracic surgery training program at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, which was the first approved training service in thoracic surgery north of Los Angeles on the West Coast.

To honor him for his service to thoracic surgery, Samson’s close friends and colleagues founded the Samson Thoracic Surgical Society of Western North America in 1974 because they believed that such an honor was due him during his lifetime.  Following his death on February 10, 1982 at the age of 76, the Samson Thoracic Surgical Society was renamed The Western Thoracic Surgical Association in 1983 to achieve representation at the American College of Surgeons Board of Governors, which did not recognize societies named after an individual. Samson’s name, however, is preserved in the Samson Endowment Fund, the Samson prize for the best resident paper, and other activities of The Western Thoracic Surgical Association.

Sources: Collegiate Water Polo Association, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia, Find a Grave. Olympics.com, Annals of Thoracic Surgery, Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery