Dean McAllister Lierle was born May 21, 1895 in Marshalltown, Iowa, where his father, Dr. Frederick Perkins, had a medical practice. He attended Stanford University for two years prior to enrollment at the State University of Iowa, where he received the B.S. degree in 1919. Lierle took the M.D. in 1921 and the M.S. in 1923, also at SUI. He made his internship at Boston University from 1921 to 1922. Lierle completed postgraduate work in bronchoscopy at the University of Pennsylvania (1928) and in pathology and anatomy at the University of Vienna (1929-1930).

Dr. Lierle served as resident physician at the SUI College of Medicine in the Ophthalmology Department, and in the Department of Otolaryngology and Oral Surgery in 1923. He served as instructor in the latter department from 1923 to 1925. He was named assistant professor in the Department of Head Specialties in 1925, and acting head in the Department of Otolaryngology in 1927. He was named full professor in 1928. The following year he was made head of Otolaryngology and Oral Surgery, a position he held until his retirement in 1965. His was the recipient of the de Roaldes Award, the highest award by the American Laryngological Association. The Dean Lierle Surgical Center, funded by gifts from Lierle's former students, was opened at the University Hospital in 1973. The following year he was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award.

Lierle married Pauline Thompson in 1923 and the couple had three sons, Dean McAllister, Richard Burton, and William Bayard. Lierle died in Palo Alto, California on August 8, 1976.

Denise Anderson, May 2011