William Sydney Thayer (June 23, 1864 – December 10, 1932) was a physician and professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Medical School. He was an acclaimed teacher of clinical practice and known as the clinician's clinician. Thayer was born in

Milton, Massachusetts Milton is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States and an affluent suburb of Boston. The population was 28,630 at the 2020 census. Milton is the birthplace of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and architect Buckminster Fuller. ...

, where his father James Bradley was a professor of law at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

. His mother Sophia Ripley was a cousin of

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...

. A younger sibling,

Ezra Ezra (; he, עֶזְרָא, '; fl. 480–440 BCE), also called Ezra the Scribe (, ') and Ezra the Priest in the Book of Ezra, was a Jewish scribe (''sofer'') and priest (''kohen''). In Greco-Latin Ezra is called Esdras ( grc-gre, Ἔσδρας ...

, became dean of the Harvard Law School. William was educated at Harvard University, receiving a BA degree in 1885 after being briefly suspended for a prank. He received a medical degree in 1889. He then worked at the

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

and then went to Europe for further studies. He joined

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Hospi ...

in 1896 becoming a professor of clinical medicine in 1905. In 1917 he served with the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought alon ...

in France. He also travelled through Russia via Canada and Japan as part of the

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

. He was an acclaimed teacher of medicine at Baltimore and also conducted research. Thayer married Susan Chisolm Read, a student of nursing from Johns Hopkins, in 1901.

References

Other sources

* Reid, Edith Gittings (1936) The Life and convictions of William Sydney Thayer, physician. Oxford University Press.

External links

*
The malarial fevers of Baltimore
(1895)
Lectures on the malarial fevers
(1899) Medical ethics] (1935)
Laennec-one hundred years after the address in medicine
(1919)
Biography with portrait
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer, William Sydney 1864 births 1932 deaths People from Milton, Massachusetts American physicians Harvard College alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty