Franklin Chambers McLean

Background

He was born February 29, 1888, in Maroa, Illinois. The son and grandson of physicians, he received a Bachelor of Surgery degree from the in 1907, his Doctor of Medicine

Education

From Rush Medical College in 1910, his Master of Surgery degree in 1912 and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1915. During graduate studies he interned at Cook County Hospital, studied at the University of Graz as well as Vienna, along with several other responsibilities.

Career

He aided the Manhattan Project by studying effects of radiation on organisms. He also was a trustee of the Julius Rosenwald Fund and Fisk University. He was instrumental in solving complex social and ethical issues during the era of discrimination and segregation in the United States.

A scholarship has been established in his name - the Franklin C. McLean Award.

This award is given to medical students of minority background. McLean became a professor of pharmacology and materia medica in 1911 at the University of Oregon.

He stayed in this position until 1914. He then moved on to assistant resident at the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New New York

In 1916 the Rockefeller Foundation sponsored his trips to China to found the Peking Union Medical College.

He was appointed Director of the college, but did not stay for any length of time until 1920 due to his active army duty during World War I. In 1919 he returned to plan the layout of buildings and medical laboratories that were completed in 1921. McLean resigned his administrative duties in 1920, but remained chairman and professor of medicine until 1923, upon returning to the United States.

In 1923 McLean was invited to direct the new medical school envisioned by the and set forth planning, overseeing and raising the funds necessary. The medical school opened in 1927.

McLean served as its first vice-chairman of the faculty and the chairman of the Department of Medicine.

In 1929 he resigned the department chair so as to assume the title of Director of University Clinics and Assistant to the President in Medical Affairs. In 1932 he was forced to resign, leaving behind all administrative duties.

He easily shifted back to his research and continued to make many advancements in medicine. McLean was made Professor Emeritus in 1953, but continued his work, which included publishing.

McLean died on September 10, 1968 at the former Billings Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Achievements

• Doctor McLean was also a founder of the Peking Union Medical College.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Bone an Introduction to the Physiology of Skeletal Tissue

Connections

teacher:

Anton Julius Carlson