Howard Roy Chislett 1862 - 1918

Howard Roy Chislett 1862 - 1918 Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery in Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, Attending Surgeon to Cook County Hospital and Streeter Hospital

CHISLETT. Howard Roy, surgeon; b. Salt to St. Luke’s, Wesley, Mercy and Chicago Lake City, T T, Apr. 6, 1862; (father) John Editor Chicago Med. Recorder. (mother) Mary Ann (Stockdale) Chislett; …

… moved to Minnesota Located in Clinton, Wis., 1876, and engaged and entered firm of Chislett & Sons. St. Paul, in live stock, grain, lumber, coal, etc., there 1880-6; began study of medicine. 1884, with until 1890, when moved to Chicago (to study with) Dr. C. G. Highee, of St. Paul, Minn.; after engaged in live stock commission business; organized the Drovers’ Commission Co., 1895.

Completed 4 years’ course in St. Mark’s Acad, 1878; entered Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago graduating 1888; on graduation, was interne in Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago… graduate work in London, Berlin and Vienna, John Hopkins Hosp., 1895.

(Married) Maude A. Coddington, 1896, children: E. Verne, Velma A;

1888-9: Lecturer on Minor Surgery, Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago and has been President and general manager since organising the Medical College, 1889-91; Adjunct Professor of Surgery, 1892; Associate Professor of surgery, 1895… and since 1903 also Dean of Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. Attending Surgeon to Cook Co. Mem. Royal League. Club: Englewood Men’s. Author: Text-Book on schools of Salt Lake City, 1869; Nervous and Mental Diseases; also numerous others.

Owns dairy farm of 470 acres in Kane also handles real estate in Chicago, prof, of surgery and clinical surgery since Director of Chicago Live Stock Exchange and President of National Live Stock Exchange. Republican.

Howard Roy Chislett is a native of Salt Lake City, born of English parents, John Chislett and Mary A. Stockdale, on April 6, 1862. He acquired his early education in the common schools and in the high school department of St. Mark’s Academy;

His medical education in Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, where he came to his degree in, 1888. Aside from the time taken in post-graduate studies in Europe in 1893 and 1895, and in New York City and Baltimore in 1901 and 1903, his professional life has been spent in Chicago.

Dr. Chislett’s connection with the faculty work in his alma mater began in 1889, after a service of one year in the position of house surgeon in Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, as Lecturer on Minor Surgery.

The subsequent steps of his promotion are as follows : Adjunct Professor of Surgery, 1893 ; Associate Professor to same Chair in 1895 ; Professor of Surgery and Clinical Surgery, 1897 ; Dean of the Faculty in 1903. (and President of Hahnemann Medical College in 1902… to take the place made vacant by the death of Dr. George Francis Shears)

Since 1895 Dr. Chislett has devoted himself to surgical practice only. In 1893 he was appointed Attending Surgeon to Cook County Hospital ; in 1894 Attending Surgeon to the new Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, and to Streeter Hospital in 1900.

In 1896 he married Maude A. Coddington.

The Howard Roy Chislett Memorial Library is at the Chicago Memorial Hospital.

From the University if Illinois Library The History of Medicine and Surgery and Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago 1918:

In paying tribute to those responsible for the progress thus made (in founding the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago), Dr. Howard R. Chislett, sometime Dean, says:

"All honor to Doctors [Reuben Ludlam](/archives/2008/06/26/reuben-ludlam-and-homeopathy/), George A. Hall and [Temple S Hoyne](/archives/2008/06/20/temple-s-hoyne-and-homeopathy/). They are all dead now, but their memories are honored by their one-time students and we rejoice that they all lived sufficiently long to round out their useful lives, to prove their faith in their former students and supporters and to see their anticipations realized in the construction of our group of modern buildings.

“Without the slightest thought of belittling the earnest effort of others, the real pilot that guided Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago as it passed through its many trials was Dr. Reuben Ludlam, its first Registrar, its second Dean and its third President.

Upon the retirement of Dr. Vilas from the presidency in May, 1900, the faculty united in recommending Dr. George Francis Shears as President and Dr. Howard R. Chislett as Dean…

On the death of Dr. Shears in 1910, Dr. Chislett was elected president and Dr. Charles E. Kahlke was chosen dean. He served until 1913, when he was succeeded by Dr. Joseph Pettee Cobb.

In the early years of his presidency Dr. Chislett demonstrated to the Board of Trustees that Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, like any other educational institution could not be satisfactorily conducted on a commercial basis; that it could do work commensurate with the educational demands if its financial returns were limited to the students’ fees…

Through these efforts the individual trustees and other friends of the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago institutions properly financed the College for a period of .years (1911-1917), during which the Officers of the College and the Dean’s committee (with Dr. Charles Edwin Kahlke as Chairman) were endeavoring to interest the trustees in the organization of the Chicago Memorial Foundation, having as its purpose the taking over of the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago interests and developing them upon a broader non-sectarian basis, and the raising of funds for a new hospital.

These plans were well under way and by 1914 a sufficient amount of money had been pledged to build two of the three wings of the new hospital, when the World War convinced the trustees that the time was not propitious for expansion.

It was therefore decided to broaden the charter of the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago, increasing the Board of Trustees from ten to twenty members and giving the corporation the right “to purchase, erect, own, conduct and operate hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, one of which colleges shall be a medical college.”

It was under this new charter that Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago was taken over by the hospital corporation and conducted as one of the educational units of the hospital.

By this action the necessity of a President of the College corporation ceased and Dr. Chislett’s responsibilities as president were assumed by Mr. John J. Mitchell, president of the hospital board, and Dr. Joseph Pettee Cobb, Dean of the College. This action was taken in 1915.