Background
Arthur J. Gillette grew up on a farm in what is now South Saint Paul, son of Albert and Ellen Gillette and attended Hamline University in the early 1880s.
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Arthur Gillette
Edit ProfileEducation
In 1883, Arthur Gillette decided to become a doctor and studied at the Minnesota Hospital College and the Saint Paul Medical College in downtown Saint Paul. After his graduation he moved to New York and studied orthopaedic surgery under the renowned Doctor Lewis Albert Sayer and Doctor Newton Shaffer.
Career
Doctor Gillette returned to Minnesota in 1888 where orthopaedic surgery became his specialty. By 1890, Doctor Gillette was Minnesota"s first full-time orthopaedist and was an instructor at the University of Minnesota Medical School in what he called "this almost new science" of orthopaedic surgery. The regents named Doctor Gillette chief surgeon and Doctor Gillette"s medical school colleagues agreed to donate their services.
Doctor Gillette married Katherine Kennedy, a school teacher at the hospital, in 1905.
The couple began an annual tradition of inviting young patients to have a picnic on the grounds of their Saint Paul mansion. The number of patients Doctor Gillette served outgrew the space at City and County Hospital and the need for a separate institution was apparent.
Citizens of Saint Paul, the Business League and the Commercial Club of Saint Paul donated 23 acres (93,000 m2) in Phalen Park and its new facilities opened in 1911. On March 21, 1921, Doctor Gillette died at the age of 57.
He had been responsible for the treatment of 4,171 children.
More than 80 percent were cured or discharged as improved and able to live independently. In 1925, in memory of Doctor Gillette, the hospital was renamed the Gillette State Hospital for Crippled Children (now Gillette Children"s Specialty Healthcare).
