FAMOUS SURGEON DEAD

Southland Times, Issue 23829, 29 May 1939, Page 7

FAMOUS SURGEON DEAD

DR CHARLES H. MAYO SUPERINTENDENT OF CLINIC AT ROCHESTER (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received May 28, 6.30 ,p.m.) CHICAGO, May 27. The death has occurred of Dr Charles H. Mayo, chief of the famous Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota. Dr Mayo had been ill for a week with pneumonia, and a blood transfusion ‘and the oxygen tent were unavailing. Charles Horace Mayo, the American surgeon who with his elder brother William founded one of the best-equipped medical institutions in the world, was born at Rochester, Minnesota, in July 1865. and was educated at the Northwestern University, where he took the M.A. degree in 1888. His father was an English doctor who was born at Eccles, Lancashire, but went to the United States and made his career at Rochester. Dr Mayo joined his elder brother in practice at Rochester and became surgeon and associate chief-of-staff at the Mayo Clinic, which had been founded by their father, and was kept thoroughly up to date in equipment and treatment. In a few years the brothers ranked among the most famous medical men in the United States and received honorary degrees and other distinctions from '■ American, British, Canadian and other universities and societies. In 1915 they gave £300,000 to establish at Rochester the Mayo Foundation for medical education and research in affiliation with Minnesota University. Later they created the Mayo Properties Association, to hold all the properties, endowments and funds of the Mayo Clinic and to ensure the permanence of the institution for public service. During the Great War Dr Mayo served as a consultant surgeon in the American Medical Department and was awarded the D.S.M. He was also professor of surgery to the Mayo Foundation and at the medical school of Minnesota University. The Mayo Clinic had meanwhile become the largest hospital unit in the world. It had a staff of specialists always available for operations of any kind. In 1929 the brothers went to England and gave a five-panel stained glass window to Eccles Parish Church in memory of their father, who died in 1911. It was unveiled by the Bishop of Manchester. The brothers afterwards attended the conference of the. British Medical Association and were greeted as distinguished visitors both there and at many social gatherings.