Presley Marion Rixey
| Presley Marion Rixey | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 14, 1852 Culpeper, Virginia |
| Died | June 17, 1928 (aged 75) Rosslyn, Virginia |
| Place of burial | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Navy
|
| Years of service | 1874–1910 |
| Rank | Rear Admiral |
Rear Admiral Presley Marion Rixey (14 July 1852, Culpeper, Virginia – 17 June 1928) was a Surgeon General of the United States Navy (1902–10) and personal physician to Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
The older brother of John Franklin Rixey, Rixey earned his medical degree at the University of Virginia in 1873. On 25 April 1877, he married Earlena J. English, daughter of Rear Admiral Earl English, United States Navy.
He was commissioned Assistant Surgeon in the Navy on 28 January 1874. He served on the Sabine, Congress, Tallapoosa (1879–82), Lancaster (1884–87), Dolphin (1893–96), and Solace, receiving promotion to Passed Assistant Surgeon on 18 April 1877, to Surgeon on 27 November 1888, and was commissioned as a Medical Inspector on 24 August 1900.
He attended President McKinley after he was shot in Buffalo, New York, in 1901.
Rixey was appointed Surgeon General of the United States Navy on 15 February 1902 and served as Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, with the rank of rear admiral, until his retirement on 4 February 1910.
During his tenure as Surgeon General Rixey strongly supported the foundation of a women's nursing corps for the Navy. In his 1902 annual report he stated that, "There has been a growing conviction in the minds of many of the most experienced medical officers of the service, especially since the war with Spain, that the employment of women for the nursing of the sick in our large hospitals would result in greater efficiency than has been obtained heretofore by the use of male nurses alone, and that such employment would not conflict with the conditions arising from the military character of the institution." With his help the Navy Nurse Corps was finally established in 1908.
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