Howard Atwood Kelly (February 20, 1858 – January 12, 1943) was an American gynecologist. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at Johns Hopkins Hospital.[1] (The "Big Four" were William Osler, Professor of Medicine; William Stewart Halsted, Professor of Surgery; Howard A. Kelly, Professor of Gynecology; and William H. Welch, Professor of Pathology.) Kelly is credited with establishing gynecology as a true specialty.[2]
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He was born at Camden, New Jersey and educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated B.A. in 1877 and M.D. in 1882, and where he was associate professor of obstetrics in 1888-89. While in Philadelphia he founded Kensington Hospital for Women.[3]
In 1889 at the age of 31 he was hired to be the first professor of gynecology and obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University and gynecological surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital. During his 30-year career at Hopkins he created new surgical approaches to women's diseases and invented numerous medical devices, including a cystoscope. He was one of the first to use radium to treat cancer.[2]
His attainments in his special field brought him many honors. He received the honorary degree of (LL.D.) from Aberdeen and Washington and Lee universities and from the University of Pennsylvania; he served as president of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society in 1907 and of the American Gynecological Society in 1912; and he was elected fellow or honorary member of English, Scottish, French, German, Austrian, and Italian obstetrical and gynecological societies.
The Johns Hopkins Kelly Gynecologic Oncology Service is named for him.
In 1943 a U.S. Liberty ship was christened the Howard A. Kelly.
He married Laetitia Bredow, daughter of professor Justus Bredow, in 1889; they had nine children.[4]
Kelly was also an evangelical Christian and was known to share his faith openly.[5] He was a friend of H. L. Mencken and was frequently referred to in Mencken's writings.[6]
Besides contributing some 300 articles to medical journals and editing, with C. P. Noble, Gynecology and Abdominal Surgery (volume i, 1907; volume ii, 1908), he published: