Charles Horace Mayo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Horace Mayo (July 19, 1865 – May 26, 1939) was an American medical practitioner and a co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.
Mayo graduated from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in 1888 and joined his father, William Worrall Mayo, and older brother, William James Mayo, in their medical practice in Rochester, Minnesota. In 1889, the Mayos opened the first general hospital in south western Minnesota and pioneered the principle of "group practice". The Mayo Clinic came to be regarded as one of the foremost medical treatment and research institutions in the world. Within Mayo's lifetime it registered one million patients.
As far as he could within a general practice, Mayo specialized in surgery of the thyroid and nervous system. He was also responsible for the clinic's ophthalmic patients until 1908. In the face of his father's resistance, he and his brother insisted on sterile conditions in the operating room. He was also an early adopter of X-rays as a diagnostic tool.
Mayo was an active freemason like his father. He was initiated on January 27, 1890 and raised to the degree of Master Mason on May 12, 1890 in Rochester Minnesota Lodge No. 21.
Mayo retired in 1928 and died in 1939. His son Charles William Mayo continued his work in the clinic.
The United States Postal Service printed a stamp depicting him and his brother on September 11, 1964.
[edit] References
- Clapesattle, Helen. The Doctors Mayo, University of Minnesota Press (1975). ISBN 0-8166-0465-7
