Background
Isadore Dyer was born on November 2, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, United States. He was the son of Isadore Dyer, a native of Dessau, Germany, and his wife, Amelia Ann Lewis.
Isadore Dyer was born on November 2, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, United States. He was the son of Isadore Dyer, a native of Dessau, Germany, and his wife, Amelia Ann Lewis.
After graduation at the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale (Ph. B. , 1887), he began the study of medicine at the University of Virginia, but after a year there matriculated at Tulane University where he received his M. D. in 1889. A part of 1892 was spent in graduate study in Paris and London.
His interneship was at the New York Skin and Cancer Hospital (1890 - 92) and in 1891 he was, in addition, lecturer at the Post Graduate Medical School.
He became associate professor of dermatology at the Tulane University of Louisiana in 1905, was promoted to professor in 1908, and in that year was made dean: positions which he occupied until his death.
From 1892 until its absorption by Tulane, he was also professor of diseases of the skin at the New Orleans Polyclinic.
At the outset of his practise in New Orleans he began his life-long interest in leprosy, and not only accomplished much in the treatment of the disease, but also in the proper protection and care of its victims. In 1894 he founded and became president of the first board of control of the Louisiana Leper Home, later to become the National Leprosarium.
His interest in the military service began in 1908 when he was commissioned first lieutenant in the newly organized Medical Reserve Corps of the army.
He served on various examining boards from time to time and three days after the entrance of the United States into the World War was made a major.
For a time he was inspector and later on duty in the Surgeon-General’s Office, War Department.
In 1919 he was commissioned colonel in the Reserve.
He was the author of more than a hundred papers on diseases of the skin, medical biography, and essays, some of which were collected in The Art of Medicine and Other Addresses, Papers, etc. (1913).
He was editor of the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal from 1896 until his death and co-editor of the American Journal of Tropical Diseases and Preventive Medicine (1914 - 16).
He was a delegate to the International Leprosy Conference in Berlin (1897) and the Brussels Conference on Prophylaxis of Venereal Diseases (1899).
He was a charter member of the National Board of Medical Examiners, a body in which he took great interest as a pioneer in the standardization of medical education.
He was a man of great native ability and of diversified talents and culture, being internationally recognized not only as a specialist in his chosen field but also as an educator, an executive, and a philanthropist.
In 1905 he married Mercedes Louise Percival of Havana, Cuba.