Edwin Charles Cort

Background

Edwin Charles Cort was born on March 14, 1879 in Rochelle, Illinois, United States. He was the son of Joseph and Martha (Shaw) Cort.

Education

He attended Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pennsylvania receiving the B. A. in 1901 and the M. A. in 1904. He graduated from the Johns Hopkins Medical School in 1907.

Career

Cort applied to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and was appointed to the Thailand Mission in March 1908; he sailed in September.

He was sent to the Lao country of northern Thailand and resided the first two years at Lampang and the second two at Prae. In 1914 Cort assumed control of McCormick Hospital in Chiengmai when James McKean decided to devote himself exclusively to leprosy work. This was to be Cort's assignment until retirement. Cort developed McCormick into a fully equipped, up-to-date hospital.

He was held in complete confidence by the government health service and had great influence with its officers. He directed many young Thai students to the Johns Hopkins Medical School and retained close contacts with them on their return to Thailand.

Medical education was a major concern of Dr. Cort. He began a medical school at Prince Royal's College in 1916 with the assistance of McKean and Claude Mason. Four men were graduated and licensed as M. D. 's by the Thai government, but the school was then discontinued because the government expanded the Royal Medical College in Bangkok. Nurses rarely served in the provinces and Cort founded the McCormick School for Nurses in 1923, the first such school outside the capital. The relocation and rebuilding of McCormick Hospital further contributed to the development of health care resources. The new hospital was formally opened on February 13, 1925, by Prince Mahidol, heir-apparent to the throne. The prince had received his M. D. from Harvard University, and in 1927 he joined the hospital as an intern and resided with the Corts. He died before completing his internship, but his association with the hospital gave it great prestige in the minds of the people.

A building was erected by the prince of Chiengmai in gratitude for Cort's personal care of the Princess Dara, his mother and a wife of King Chulalongkorn. Cort made friends with royalty, but he just as genuinely made friends and identified with the peasants of the countryside and the poor of the city. In addition to supervision of McCormick Hospital Dr. Cort took charge of the leprosarium whenever Dr. McKean was on leave, including the long period of 1915-1918.

So thoroughly was Cort known and revered throughout the northern region that the popular name for him was Phor Lieng (foster-father). When the Japanese troops occupied the country during World War II, Thailand was forced to join the Axis. Cort forestalled seizure of the hospital by the Japanese in 1941 by turning the institution over to the Thai government. He, his wife, and the other American missionaries fled across the border into Burma, and then went on into India. The Corts spent three years at Fatehgarh, where the doctor took charge of the hospital, raised funds for a new maternity ward, three child-health centers, and a nurses' dormitory.

He also expanded the school for nurses. Cort went to the United States to prepare for return at the earliest date and attack the health problems brought on by the war. He arranged with Church World Service for supplies and an emergency system of relief.

He returned in April 1946 with a huge supply of drugs, as medical director of Church World Service for the country. Once again malaria was the principal scourge; and, employing the governmental agencies and the scores of doctors and nurses he had trained or aided, he set up a system which administered atabrine to 350, 000 persons.

The health of these people was so improved that they were able to bring in the rice harvest which had been expected to be lost. The government, through Prince Wan Waithayakon, presented a jeweled plaque to Church World Service. The government in this period also turned back to the Presbyterian Mission seven hospitals which it had held during the war years, and Cort rehabilitated them. He also began plans for a new Bangkok Christian Hospital.

When the Corts retired in 1949 and returned to America, they were showered with honors and tributes in the Chiengmai area and in Bangkok.

Even though retired, he still kept busy with medicine--engaged in work at the Veterans' Hospital at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. Dr. Cort died at Alexandria, Virginia.

Achievements

• Cort was the most noted and influential foreign medical expert in Thailand. He contributed much to the knowledge of tropical medicine. The king had bestowed on Dr. Cort in 1927 the honor of knight of the Order of the Crown for distinguished service in medicine, and now the king presented him with the highest honor, the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Dear Friends: The Civil War Letters and Diary of Charles Edwin Cort

Membership

Cort was a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Surgeons, and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine.

Connections

He married Mabel Gilson, of Zanesville on September 26, 1910.

Father:

Joseph Cort

Mother:

Martha (Shaw) Cort

Spouse:

Mabel Gilson