Showing 18 results

Authority record
Surgeons

Able, Luke William

  • Person
  • 1912-2006

Luke William Able was born August 2, 1912 in Port Arthur, Texas, and his family moved to Houston when he was six. He earned his Bachelor’s from the University of Texas in 1933 and his MD from UTMB in 1940. He enlisted in 1942 while he was an intern at Hermann Hospital. Able survived a kamikaze attack on the USS Aulick in Leyte Gulf in the Pacific Theater on November 19, 1944. He suffered a shattered leg and other injuries but directed the treatment of wounded until he passed out from his own injuries. He was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart and spent two years in the hospital recovering.
After the war, he trained at Children’s Hospital in Boston. He was head of the surgery department of Texas Children’s Hospital from 1954 to 1987. In 1964, he participated in one of the early separations of conjoined twins in Texas.
Dr. Able retired in 1988 due to complications from his World War II wounds. He died March 16, 2006 in Franklin, North Carolina.

Barkley, Howard T.

  • Person
  • 1901-1981

Howard T. Barkley, Sr. was born in Tucson, AZ on November 30, 1901. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1931 with his Bachelor's degree and the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons with a MD in 1935. He first served as an intern at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York before going to the Presbyterian Hospital, also of New York, to serve as a surgical resident. He received further training at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor before moving permanetnly to Houston, TX in 1941.

During World War II he served as a flight surgeon for the United States Army Air Corps, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was an associate of professor of clinical surgery at Baylor College of Medicine from 1943-1980 and chief of thoracic surgery at MD Anderson Hospital from 1944-1968. Barkley also served on the staff of Hermann Hospital in Houston from 1942 to 1972, and as chief of thoracic surgery there from 1944-1968. In 1948 he was appointed chairman of the medical staff at Houston AntiTubercular Clinic. Barkley served in a variety of capacities for different regional medical organizations. Barkley served as president of the Houston Surgical Society in 1952, the Texas Tuberculosis Association from 1956-1958, the Harris County Medical Society in 1967, and the Houston chapter of the American Tuberculosis Association. He served as vice president of the National Tuberculosis Association in 1963-1964. He was a founding member of the American Association of Thoracic Surgery in 1948 and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons in 1964.

Howard T. Barkley died on January 26, 1981.

Barnes, Frank L.

  • Person
  • 1872-1943

Frank Lister Barnes was born September 26, 1872 in Trinity, Texas, and died October 2, 1943, in Houston. Barnes graduated from Hill’s College in Waco and earned his MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Baltimore, Maryland (this merged at some point with the University of Maryland School of Medicine) in 1896 and interned at Mercy Hospital. His middle name is sometimes reported to be “Lester”. He was a founding member of the Texas Surgical Society and American Board of Surgeons. He served in the Army, stationed at Galveston, during the Spanish-American War. Dr. Barnes built a hospital in Trinity in 1908 but moved to Houston in 1915. He is the father of Dr. Payton Barnes of Houston. Dr. Barnes is buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery in Trinity.
Note: Robert Howard Hill’s (1856-1919) Hill’s Business College operated in Waco from 1881 to about 1920. There is some information about it online (there were also multiple unrelated Hill’s Business Colleges operating in different states around the same time).

Blair, Robert K.

  • Person
  • 1912-2007

Born October 12, 1912 in Chillicothe, Texas, and raised in nearby Vernon. Blair graduated from the Rice Institute in 1933 and from UTMB in 1937. After a two-year internship at Jefferson Davis Hospital, Blair served as medical director of the Texas Prison System from 1939 to 1944. He practiced briefly in Wharton before moving to Houston in 1945. He was an on-call physician for the Todd Shipyards from 1944 to 1947 and taught anatomy at the Texas Dental College from 1947 to 1950. Blair served as president of the Harris County Medical Society in 1961. He was joined in practice by his son-in-law, C. Frank Webber, in 1964 and retired in 1976. He was the medical director of the Philadelphia Insurance Company’s Southwest Division until his full retirement in 1998. He was also active in numerous social, professional, and philanthropical organizations. He died December 21, 2007.

Blocker, Truman G.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n87853438
  • Person
  • 1909-1984

Truman Graves Blocker, MD, was born 1909 April 17 in West Point, Mississippi. He attended school in Sherman, Texas and graduated from Austin College in 1929. He earned an MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1933, followed by an internship at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and a year’s residency in surgery again in Galveston at John Sealy Hospital. He spent a short time as an instructor in surgery at the Columbia University-affiliated Presbyterian Hospital in New York City before returning to Galveston again in 1936 to take a position at UTMB as an assistant professor of surgery. He served as a surgeon first in the Air Force and then in the Army between 1942 and 1946, where he specialized in reconstructive plastic surgery. When he returned to UTMB in 1946 he became professor and head of the new department of plastic and maxillofacial surgery. Blocker’s wife, Dr. Virginia Blocker, was also a physician and, after the 1947 Texas City Disaster, they co-published a survey of the casualties. Blocker would eventually publish or co-publish 182 items, mostly on treatment and care of burn victims.
In addition to his research and teaching responsibilities, Blocker served in a diverse and complex variety of administrative positions, enabling him to influence the growth and expansion of UTMB. He was instrumental in convincing the Shriners to choose Galveston as the location for their burn hospital, and he retained an interest in military medicine for the rest of his life. UTMB commemorated him by renaming its Moody Medical Library for him after his death in 1984.

Cooley, Denton A., 1920-2016

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79078765.html
  • Person
  • 1920-2016

Dr. Denton A. Cooley, the founder of the Texas Heart Institute, attended the University of Texas and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he graduated in 1944. After serving in the Army Medical Corps and studying with Lord Russell Brock in London, he returned to his hometown of Houston, Texas to teach surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in the 1950s. The Texas Heart Institute was founded on August 3, 1962 in order to research and treat cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Among many innovations developed by Cooley and his colleagues at the Institute are the first implantation of an artificial heart, the first successful heart transplant in the United States, advances in treatment of congenital defects, and a number of prostheses and implants. The Institute is part of Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the word. CHI St. Luke’s Health – Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is the Institute’s clinical partner. [Sources: Texas Heart Institute website; The Houston Review, vol. 2, no. 1, p.16-19]

Copeland, Murray M.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2018054171
  • Person
  • 1902-1982

Murray Marcus Copeland was born June 23, 1902, in Georgia, and died April 2, 1982, in Easton, Texas, although he lived in Houston at the time. Copeland was a professor of surgery at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center from 1960 to 1982. He had been chair of Georgetown University’s medical school from 1947 to 1960 and was president of the American Cancer Society from 1964 to 1965. Dr. Copeland graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1923 and earned his MD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1927. He also trained in surgery at the Mayo Clinic Memorial Hospital for Cancer in New York City. He served in medical corps in the Pacific Theater during World War II and was awarded a Legion of Merit. Copeland has an entry in the Handbook of Texas Online.

Duke, James H., Jr. (James Henry), 1928-2015

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n85385977
  • Person
  • 1928-2015

Dr. James "Red" Duke, Jr. was a renowned American trauma surgeon and a well-known figure in the field of emergency medicine. Dr. Duke gained national recognition for his work as an advocate for injury prevention and for his role in pioneering the concept of bringing emergency room care to the site of an accident, known as the Life Flight program. He played a significant role in establishing the Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas, and also served as head of the Division of Trauma Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Beyond his medical contributions, Dr. "Red" Duke was recognized for his television show, "Dr. Red Duke's Health Reports", which aired on KPRC-TV in Houston. He was known for his engaging and accessible approach to health education and awareness, making complex medical information understandable to the general public. Dr. Duke passed away on August 25, 2015, leaving behind a legacy of medical innovation and a commitment to improving emergency medical care. His contributions to the field of trauma surgery and public health continue to be remembered and appreciated in the medical community.

Ehni, George

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84007816.html
  • Person
  • 1914-1986

George John Ehni, MD was a neurosurgeon who practiced in Houston from 1949-1986. During 1959-1979 he was chairman of the division of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine. Born in 1914 in Pekin, Ill, Dr. Ehni was a 1939 graduate of Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. He served an internship at Cincinnati (Ohio) General Hospital (July 1939-1940) and a residency at the Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minn (July 1940-1944). During World War II, Dr. Ehni served in the US Navy. In 1946 he moved to Temple and established the department of neurosurgery at Scott and White Clinic. He moved to Houston in 1949. Dr. Ehni was a past president of the Neurosurgical Society of America, the Southern Neurosurgical Society, and the International Society for Study of the Lumbar Spine. He died September 2, 1986 at the age of 72.

[Source: Obituary, Texas Medicine, January 1987, p.82]

Gandy, Joe R.

  • Person
  • 1908-1985

Joe Ruel Gandy was born October 12, 1908, in Lipan, Hood County, Texas, and died in Houston on April 16, 1985 and is buried at Forest Park Westheimer Cemetery. Dr. Gandy was a surgeon for the Southern Pacific Railroad Hospital (now the Thomas Street Clinic). His research related to railroad medicine.

Greenwood, James Jr.

  • Person
  • 1907-1993

James Greenwood Jr. was born on July 19, 1907, in Seguin, Texas. He received a B.A. degree from the Rice Institute in 1927 and an M.D. degree from UTMB in Galveston in 1931. He interned at the Philadelphia General Hospital before returning to Houston and serving as Chairman of the Division of Neurosurgery at the Methodist Hospital from 1936 to 1980. He began teaching at Baylor College of Medicine in 1943 and was active in many medical societies as well as an organizing member of the Houston Surgical Society. He was the first neurosurgeon in Houston and the Southwest United States. An innovator in his field, he invented the bipolar coagulation forceps and developed bipolar electrocoagulation, which enabled surgeons to staunch bleeding while irrigating incisions to prevent tissue from overheating and incurring more damage. He was the first neurosurgeon in the world to successfully remove intramedullary spinal cord tumors. He died July 3, 1993, in Houston, Texas.

Halsted, William S.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n84800469
  • Person
  • 1852-1922

William S. Halsted was an American surgeon, 1852-1922. Halsted was born on September 23, 1852 in New York City. He graduated you from Yale in the 1874 and then entered medical school at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He graduated after three years in 1877 in with an M.D. Halsted had a distinguished career including the first chief of surgery at John Hopkins where he trained such notables as Harvey Cushing.1

  1. Retrieved on April 30, 2010 from Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Halsted

Matkin, Marion

  • Person
  • 1836-1895

Marion Matkin was born August 29, 1836, in Old Spring Hill, Marengo County, Alabama. He served as an assistant surgeon in the 15th Arkansas Infantry, Company B, Confederate Army, during the Civil War. He married Louise Olivia Garrott in Marengo, Alabama, in 1865. The 1880 census says he lived in Hearne, Robertson County, Texas. He died in Terrell, Texas, near Fort Worth on May 12, 1895 and is buried with a veteran’s marker in Oakwood Cemetery. Dr. Matkin’s obituary says he died of Bright’s disease (chronic nephritis, more or less).
Their daughter Ollie Baldwin died at Heights Hospital at the age of 78 in 1955; the death certificate says she had lived in Houston for 45 years.

McCorkle, Robert G.

  • Person
  • 1923-1979

Robert George McCorkle, Jr., was born in San Antonio, Texas, on September 18, 1923, and died January 24, 1979. His father, Robert G. McCorkle, Sr., (March 16, 1892 – March 20 1954) was also a doctor.

Phillips, John Roberts

  • Person
  • 1904-1983

John Roberts Phillips was born on February 28, 1904 in Quantico, Maryland. He graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1923 and completed his Master of Surgery at the University of Minnesota in 1931. He received a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic from 1929 to 1933. In 1929, he married Rebecca Jane Hall. In 1933, Phillips started his own surgical practice in Houston and served as the Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas and as the Assistant Professor of Surgery at Baylor University in Houston, Texas. He authored and co-authored over 124 articles published in various medical journals. Phillips retired in 1967 and died April 19, 1983.

Rebecca Jane Hall Phillips was born on December 14, 1903 in Maryland. She became a registered nurse at the University of Maryland. She served as a surgical nurse from 1927-1929 in Maryland, as a nurse at the Mayo Clinic from 1927-1932, and then starting in 1933, served as the surgical nurse, office manager, and public relations manager for her husband, John Roberts Phillips’ practice in Houston, TX.

Seybold, William Dempsey

  • Person
  • 1915-2004

Dr. William Dempsey Seybold was born in Temple, Texas on February 23, 1915, the oldest son of Claude Dempsey and Lillian Cochrane Seybold. He attended high school in Temple and received his B.S. in medicine from the University of Texas at Austin in 1936.
In 1938, he received his M.D. from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and stayed on as an instructor of anatomy until 1940. While an instructor, Dr. Seybold made a discovery that had previously gone unnoticed in the study of gross anatomy. He noted small ligaments that hold the spinal cord in place and published his first paper on the subject in 1940 in Anatomical Record entitled, "A note on the occurrence of transverse fibrous bands in the spinal dural sac of man." Dr. Seybold left his teaching appointment at the UT Medical Branch to do his internship at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, which he completed in 1941.
On May 3, 1941, Dr. Seybold married Frances Randolph Rather of Austin, and together they moved to Rochester, Minnesota, where he began his residency in surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Their first son, William Rather Seybold was born in Rochester in April, 1942. Between 1944 and 1946 he served as Lt. JG. with the United States Naval Reserve Medical Corps. During that time their second son, Randolph Cochrane Seybold, was born in December, 1944. The Seybold family returned to Rochester where Dr. Seybold completed his training in both general and thoracic surgery in 1947. He was appointed to the Mayo Clinic staff in 1948.
While at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Seybold dedicated much of his time to the surgical treatment of tuberculosis and became a close friend and colleague of Dr. O. T. "Jim" Clagett, with whom he published several articles, including "Resection in pulmonary tuberculosis" and "The use of gelatin foam in thoracopiasties." Dr. Seybold also served as a visiting thoracic surgeon at the Nopeming Sanatorium near Duluth, Minnesota, a sanatorium regularly staffed with Mayo physicians.
The Seybold's third child, a daughter, Frances Rather Seybold, was born in Rochester in October, 1949.
Dr. Seybold resigned from the Mayo Clinic on October 1, 1950, to return to his native Texas, where he joined the practice of another Mayo alumnus, Dr. Mavis P. Kelsey. A third Mayo-trained physician, Dr. William V. Leary, also became a partner. Two years later, however, Dr. Seybold withdrew from the partnership and established himself in an office in the Hermann Professional Building. In the summer of 1954, Dr. John W. Overstreet joined Dr. Seybold, forming a partnership that lasted until 1961, when Dr. Seybold rejoined what was then called the Kelsey-Leary Clinic. Dr. Seybold remained a partner in the subsequent Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, became Chief of the Surgery Section and later Chief of Staff, Chairman of the Professional Committee, and member of the Executive Committee.
Dr. Seybold also was the Chief of Surgery of St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (a position he held from 1956), and Chief of Staff of St. Luke's from 1967-1970. He was on the active staff of both Methodist and Hermann Hospitals as well.
The teaching appointments he held were as Clinical Professor of Surgery with Baylor College of Medicine; Clinical Associate in the Program of Surgery, University of Texas Medical School in Houston; and Consultant in Surgery, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, among others.
In addition to his administrative and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Seybold was an active member in many professional associations and organizations, including: Alpha Omega Alpha, AMA, Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons (member of the Board of Governors), Fellowship in the American College of Chest Physicians, American Association for Thoracic Surgery, Mayo Alumni Association (liaison for Mayo with Baylor College of Medicine and Ad Hoc Committee member), Western Surgical Society (member of programs committee), Texas Medical Association (Chairman of the Section on Surgery, Chairman of the Nursing and Patient Services Committees), Texas Surgical Society (president in 1971), Harris County Medical Society, Houston Surgical Society and Sigma XI. He was a member of the Advisory Board and the Credentials Committee of the American Association of Medical Clinics, member of the Board of Trustees of the Kelsey-teary Foundation, member of the Chancellor's Council of the University of Texas System and member of the Advisory Board to the President of the University of Texas Medical Branch. He received a citation of merit from the UT Medical Branch in 1970.
Dr. Seybold participated in several civic organizations, devoting much of his time to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Houston Area Chapter where he held positions as chairman of the chapter, secretary, board member, and on numerous committees. He served as Vice President of the Southwestern Region and on several committees at the national level as well. He had worked diligently for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society since 1959 and received a citation of merit from the Society in 1969.
He served as President and Board member of the Texas Division of the American Cancer Society, and was on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Harris County Unit for many years. He received a citation of merit from the American Cancer Society in 1961. Dr. Seybold was also an active member of the Friends of the Texas Medical Center Library, Friends of the Houston Public Library and the Texas State Historical Association, and served as a member of the Vestry of St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Houston.
To his credentials are added the publication of 52 medical papers, innumerable presentations and lectures, and 5 books on which he collaborated.
Dr. and Mrs. Seybold's daughter died of bacterial endocarditis in November, 1968 at the age of 19. His wife, Frances, died in January, 1977 after living with multiple sclerosis for many years. Their two sons both became physicians. Dr. Seybold died July 8, 2004, and willed his body to the University of Texas Southwest Medical Center in Dallas.

Shelton, Elvin L.

  • Person
  • 1914-1991

Elvin Lee Shelton, Jr., was born November 3, 1914 in Alvarado, Texas. He earned his BS from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1936 and his MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1939. After his residency at John Sealy Hospital in Galveston, Shelton served thirty-six months overseas in the Army. e came to Houston in 1948 and served on the staff of St. Luke’s, Bellaire, Twelve Oaks, Methodist, and other hospitals. He also taught at both Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical School until his retirement in 1987. Dr. Shelton died July 19, 1991, at St. Luke’s Hospital.

Taylor, Judson L.

  • Person
  • 1881-1949

Judson Ludwell Taylor was born August 5, 1881, at New Waverly, Texas. He died November 28, 1944. Doctor Taylor was a surgeon and served as Commander in the United States Navy. He was a founding member of the American Board of Surgery. He lead the formation of a permanent blood plasma bank for the Gulf Coast area. He served as president of the State Medical Association and Harris County Medical Society, and was instrumental in developing the Post-Graduate Medical Assembly of South Texas. He played a large part in establishing the Dental Branch of The University of Texas.

Martin Junius Taylor, older brother of Judson Taylor, was born in 1870. He was a physician and surgeon in Texas, practicing medicine for 27 years. After receiving his medical degree in 1892 from Memphis Hospital Medical College, he began his practice in Polk County, Texas. He moved to Houston in 1918, where he was a staff member many of the Houston-area hospitals, becoming President of Memorial Hospital staff. He served as president of both the Polk County Medical Society and the Harris County Medical Society. He died on October 21, 1949.

Resolution on the Death of Dr. Judson L. Taylor, Board Minutes of the Houston District Dental Society, February 17, 1945.

“Dr. M. J. Taylor Succumbs after Long Illness”, newspaper clipping, October 21, 1949. MS 210 Judson L. Taylor, MD papers. McGovern Historical Center, Texas Medical Center Library.