Milton Helpern, Chief Medical Examiner, New York City, poses for the cover of Modern Medicine magazine, 1965. Milton Helpern (1902-1977) received his M.D. from Cornell University in 1926, joined the staff of the New York City Medical Examiner's Office in 1931, and taught forensic pathology at New York University. In 1954 he became the city's chief medical examiner. During his long career, he personally performed or supervised 60,000 autopsies and was internationally recognized as an expert in forensic medicine. The New York Times called him 'Sherlock Holmes with a microscope'. A medical examiner is an appointed medically qualified officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and bodily injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortems, and sometimes to initiate inquests.