Franklin C. McLean

Dr. Franklin C. McLean
Franklin Chambers McLean (1966)
Born	Franklin Chambers McLean February 29, 1888 Maroa, Illinois
Died	September 10, 1968 Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	American Physician
Known for	• University of Chicago Medical Clinics -Director, Professor & Chairman for the Department of Medicine  • National Medical Fellowships -Founder  • The Franklin C. McLean Scholarship Award

Dr. Franklin Chambers McLean (1888 - September 10, 1968) was a Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine and the first appointed Director of the University of Chicago Medical Clinics, as well as the founder of the National Medical Fellowships. He aided the Manhattan Project by studying effects of radiation on organisms. He also was a trustee of the Julius Rosenwald Fund and Fisk University.

Dr. McLean was also a founder of the Peking Union Medical College. He was instrumental in solving complex social and ethical issues during the era of discrimination and segregation in the United States. A scholarship has been established in his name - the Franklin C. McLean Award. This award is given to medical students of minority background.

He was born February 29, 1888, in Maroa, Illinois. The son and grandson of physicians, he received a B.S. degree from the University of Chicago in 1907, his M.D. from Rush Medical College in 1910, his M.S. degree in 1912 and his Ph.D. degree in 1915. Among his teachers was Anton Julius Carlson. During graduate studies he interned at Cook County Hospital, studied at the University of Graz as well as Vienna, along with several other responsibilities. While in China, he met a fellow medical doctor named Helen Vincent whom he married in 1923.

McLean became a professor of pharmacology and materia medica in 1911 at the University of Oregon. He stayed in this position until 1914. He then moved on to assistant resident at the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York. In 1916 the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored his trips to China to found the Peking Union Medical College. He was appointed Director of the college, but did not stay for any length of time until 1920 due to his active army duty during World War I. In 1919 he returned to plan the layout of buildings and medical laboratories that were completed in 1921. McLean resigned his administrative duties in 1920, but remained chairman and professor of medicine until 1923, upon returning to the U.S.