[Source: Municipality of Buffalo, New York: a History 1720-1923, v. IV,
editor-in-chief Henry Wayland Hill, biographical editor Winfield Scott Downs.
Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1923. Courtesy of the Robert L. Brown History
of Medicine Collection.]
Dr. Roswell Park
ROSWELL PARK, M.D., M.A., LL.D.
Dr. Park's life was so full and rich, his accomplishments so large and many that
it will ever remain an example of usefulness, yet there can be no doubt that
numerous enterprises, planned for the future of Buffalo University, hospital and
city, were uncompleted because of his lack of strength and time to carry them
forward to completion. The citizens of Buffalo owe to his memory the fulfillment
of his plans. At a meeting held by the Council of the University of Buffalo,
February 16, 1914, the following resolution was adopted:
By the sudden death of Roswell Park, MD, MA, LL.D., the University of Buffalo
loses far more than can adequately be expressed in the words of a brief, formal
appreciation, such as this tribute of respect must be. It is not for us so much
to measure Dr. Park's high service in this community as a public-spirited
citizen, as a versatile yet profound toiler in scientific research, or as a
writer whose world-wide fame has conferred distinction upon the home of his
adoption, or to recognize and declare the great debt the University of Buffalo
owes him as its loyal and generous friend and as its constant and tireless
champion. He shared our vicissitudes and aspirations for thirty years, ad he
lived to be able to say, as he did to this Council twelve hours before his
death, that he rejoiced in the signs of an early consummation of the
long-cherished hopes of the University's steadfast friends.
Dr. Park was of the ninth generation in New England, of an ancient family, which
came into England with "the Conqueror." Sir Robert Parke was the first of the
family in New England, who came to Massachusetts in 1630, but soon after moved
to Connecticut. Other of Dr. Park's ancestors were Elder Brewster, of the
"Mayflowers;" Henry Baldwin, and Colonel Loammi Baldwin, a personal friend of
Count Rumford. Six generations of the Park family have had a Roswell, and the
son of Dr. Park is the seventh to bear this name. The church, the academy, and
the army have chiefly engaged the Parks through several generations, and all
three of these callings entered into the life work of Rev. Roswell Park, D.D.,
father of Dr. Park, of this review.
Rev. Roswell Park was a graduate of the military academy at West Point, 1831,
and a graduate of Union College, A.B. He was lieutenant in the engineer corps of
the army, but in 1836 he resigned, and was professor of chemistry and natural
philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. Later he studied theology, and
resigned his professorship to take holy orders, becoming a priest of the
Protestant Episcopal church. He was pastor at Woburn, Connecticut. He also
resided in Pomfret, Connecticut, and after a sojourn in Europe, resided in
Racine, Wisconsin, where he founded Racine College, and was its president from
1852 until 1859. From 1856 until 1863 he was rector of St. Luke's Church in
Racine, then removed to Chicago, Illinois, as head of Immanuel Hall, where he
remained until his death in 1869, at the age of sixty-two years. He married Mary
Brewster Baldwin, who died in 1854, and they were the parents of Dr. Roswell
Park, one of America's most famous surgeons, and the principal character of this
review.
Dr. Roswell Park was born in Pomfret, Connecticut, May 4, 1852, and died in the
city of Buffalo, New York, February 15, 1914. He was educated in private schools
at Pomfret; in the grammar school connected with Racine College, Racine,
Wisconsin, and at Immanuel Hall, Chicago; also at Racine College, receiving his
B.A. in 1872 and MA in 1875. For one year after graduation from Racine College,
he taught at Immanuel Hall, Chicago, then entered the medical department of
Northwestern University, whence he was graduated MD, class of 1876. He was
interne and house physician to Cook County Hospital, and devoted his remaining
available time to visiting other hospitals and work in morbid anatomy. In 1879
he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in the Women's Medical College of
Chicago, and in 1880 became adjunct professor of anatomy in the medical
department of Northwestern University. In 1883 he resigned to study in Europe,
and upon his return from visiting the hospitals of Germany, France and Austria,
accepted appointment as lecturer on surgery in Rush Medical college, Chicago,
and attending surgeon at the Michael Reese Hospital. Other appointments
followed, and in 1892 Lake Forest University bestowed upon him an honorary MD On
June 23, 1883, Dr. Park came to the University of Buffalo as professor of
surgery, and soon thereafter was appointed surgeon to Buffalo General Hospital.
His fame had gone abroad, and he received many flattering offers of high
position in other cities, but he was loyal to the University of Buffalo, and
declined all of these honors. He accepted an invitation to lecture at the Army
Medical School at Washington, having been appointed honorary professor of
surgery to that institution, and he served by appointment of President Roosevelt
as one of the board of visitors at West Point Military Academy. When the Medical
reserve corps was formed, he was one of the first surgeons to receive
appointment in this branch of the army, and as yet the only man to serve as
surgeon-in-chief to Buffalo General Hospital. There was one great aim of his
life which he never achieved; that was to know the nature of cancer, and though
he strove hard to attain it, he was fated not to realize his ambition. His
interest in this, however, led to the establishment, first in the University of
Buffalo, of the Gratwick Laboratory, which became, in 1911, the New York State
Laboratory and Hospital for the Study of Malignant Diseases.
In 1892 Dr. Park delivered the Mutter lectures on "Surgical Pathology," which
were published as a volume, a contribution of lasting importance to the
professors. In 1895 he published a work of three hundred pages on the "Surgery
of the Head and Brain," ad in 1897 a text-book on the "History of Medicine,"
based on lectures delivered during 1893 in the University of Buffalo. He was the
editor and principal contributor to a two-volume textbook, "Surgery by American
Authors," 1896, which ran through three editions, and soon afterward a large
textbook, his magnum opus, on "General Surgery." He wrote a great deal for
encyclopedias of surgery, pathology and therapeutics, and contributed
extensively to current medical literature. Some of the best of his shorter
essays, philosophic and historic in nature, are to be found in his book, "The
Evil Eye and Other Essays" (1913, with a second edition in 1914). In 1901 the
Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo was held, Dr. Park being made the medical
director of the Exposition, of its sanitation, its hospitals, and its medical
staff. The International Congress on School Hygiene convened in Buffalo in the
summer of 1913, Dr. Park being chairman of the committee on arrangements. He was
president of the Medical Society of the State of New York; president of the
American Surgical Association; member of the French Society of Surgery; the
Germany Congress of Surgeons; the Italian Surgical Society, and other foreign
associations, and also was chairman of the American committee of the
International Society of Surgery. In 1895 he received from Harvard University
the honorary degree of MA, and in 1902 Yale University conferred upon him the
degree of LL.D. He was brigade surgeon of the New York National guard, holding
the rank of major.
Dr. Park married, in 1880, Martha Prudence Durkee, of Chicago, Illinois, who
died in 1899. Dr. and Mrs. Park were the parents of two sons: Roswell (7),
president of Park, Harrison & Thomas of Buffalo; and Julian, professor of
history in the University of Buffalo.
Born: October 1, 1807, Lebanon, Connecticut.
Died: July 16, 1869, Chicago, Illinois.
Buried: Mound Cemetery, Racine College (now the DeKoven Center), Racine, Wisconsin.
Park was educated at Union College and the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. He served in the army, then taught chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He took Holy Orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church and was ordained in 1843. He served as president of Racine College, Wisconsin (1852-59); chancellor there (1858-63); Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Racine (1856-1863); and principal of a school in Chicago, Illinois, from 1863 until his death. His works include:
Sources
Hymns