William Henry Welch
| William H. Welch | |
|---|---|
Welch as brigadier general circa 1917-1921
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| 1st Dean of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and School of Public Health | |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
April 8, 1850 Norfolk, Connecticut |
| Died | April 30, 1934 (aged 84) Johns Hopkins Hospital Baltimore, Maryland |
| Nationality | United States |
| Residence | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Education |
Yale University Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, M.D. |
| Occupation | Physician, pathologist |
William Henry Welch (April 8, 1850 – April 30, 1934) was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was the first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was also the founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first school of public health in the country. Welch was more known for his cogent summations of current scientific work, than his own scientific research. The Johns Hopkins medical school library is also named after Welch. In his lifetime he was called "the Dean of American Medicine" and received various awards and honors throughout his lifetime, and posthumously.
He was born on April 8, 1850 to William Wickham Welch and Emeline Collin Welch in Norfolk, Connecticut. He had a long family history of physicians and surgeons, starting with his grandfather Benajmin Welch. Benjamin was also on the medical forefront of his time, establishing his county's medical association. William H. Welch was educated at Norfolk Academy and the Winchester Institute, a boarding school. His father as well as a grandfather and four of his uncles were all physicians. William Henry entered Yale University in 1866, where he studied Greek and classics. Initially, Welch was not interested in becoming a physician; his primary ambition was to teach the Greek language. He received an A.B. degree in 1870. As an undergraduate, he joined the Skull and Bones fraternity.
After a short period of teaching high school students in Norwich, New York, Welch went to study medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, in Manhattan. In 1875, he received his MD. From 1876 to 1877, he studied at several German laboratories to work with, among others, Julius Cohnheim. This experience abroad prompted Welch to model his plans for a new medical institute on the Institute of the History of Medicine at the University of Leipzig. He returned to America in 1877 and opened a lab at Bellevue Medical College (now a part of New York University Medical School).
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