Hail to the Chief - the Physician-in-Chief

Francis Gilman Blake
Born: February 22, 1887, Mansfield Valley, Pennsylvania
Died: February 1, 1952, Washington, DC
Relation to Author: Great Grandfather In-Law

Learning about an ancestor - or in this case your wife's ancestor - is made much easier when someone else has already done the research and synthesized it for you. Such is the case with Francis Gilman Blake. So esteemed was he that the National Academy of Sciences published a "biographical memoir" of Dr. Blake (available here to download as a pdf). After reading it, I understand why.

His curriculum vitae is almost three pages long, but here are some of the highlights:
- 1913 M.D. Harvard Medical School
- 1918-1919 World War I, Active Duty - Pneumonia Commission
- 1921-1951 Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine
- 1941-1947 Dean, Yale University School of Medicine
- 1941-1946 Consultant to the Secretary of War and President of the Board for the Investigation and Control of Influenza and other Epidemic Diseases
- 1943 World War II expedition to New Guinea to study scrub typhus fever
- 1946 Awarded United States of America Medal for Merit, the highest civilian honor, for work on scrub typhus fever

Although all the accolades and achievements listed above are amazing, the real beauty of the biography is how much we can learn about Dr. Blake as a person (information I lack when looking at most other ancestors). The author says Dr. Blake was a very talented clinician, clinical investigator, teacher and administrator. The memoir gives examples of how he excelled in each of these areas and I plan to explore that more in another post.

As I am undertaking this genealogical research, I see that there are a few different categories of historical individuals. First, there are the many people that participate and make their small but meaningful contributions to their world. Second, there are the very few that receive recognition (fairly or not) for major impacts on their world. Finally, there are those that make a major impact on their world but receive less recognition. Dr. Blake falls into this last category.

In future posts, I will explore Dr. Blake's abilities as a teacher, administrator and clinician. I will also delve into his role during the Pandemic Influenza of 1919 and his role in the overall expansion of our knowledge of infectious diseases.