John Whitridge Williams was born on January 26, 1866 in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Dr. Philip C. and Mary Cushing (Whitridge) Williams. Through his mother he was descended from a family that had practised medicine in America for more than a hundred and sixty years.
After three years in the Baltimore City College, he entered the Johns Hopkins University and was graduated in 1886. He took the degree of M. D. at the University of Maryland in 1888, and went at once to Vienna and Berlin for general courses in bacteriology and pathology.
Returning from Europe, he joined the gynecological-obstetrical staff of the newly opened Johns Hopkins Hospital as associate in obstetrics (1893 - 96).
Although he had planned to devote himself to gynecology, he availed himself of the unusual opportunity in obstetrics afforded by the opening of the Johns Hopkins Medical School and spent the year 1894-95 studying obstetrics in Leipzig, writing a monograph, Contribution to the Histology and Histogenesis of Sarcoma of the Uterus (1894), while in Chiari's laboratory in Prague.
He was assistant professor of obstetrics at Johns Hopkins from 1896 until 1899, when the chair was divided, Howard A. Kelly retaining gynecology and Williams becoming professor of obstetrics and obstetrician-in-chief to the hospital. It remained Williams' conviction, however, that these subjects properly and logically should constitute a single department. He undertook the additional responsibilities of dean of the Medical School from 1911 until 1923, when he resigned to devote himself wholly to research and the service of obstetrics in the new woman's clinic building.
Williams' preeminence as a scientist appears in all his writings - some hundred. The earliest deal with bacteriology and pathology under the aegis of Dr. William H. Welch; later his statistical papers became increasingly valuable; others concern rare deformities, the toxemias of pregnancy, syphilis during pregnancy, antenatal care, contracted pelves and general pelvimetry, and the indications for cesarean section. The historical background which prefaced these treatises was of incalculable worth.
On the day of his funeral one of the first honorary fellowships of the British College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists was conferred upon him. He held several honorary degrees.
His Textbook of Obstetrics (1903) was a potent factor in promoting an understanding of the subject, and is still (1936) undoubtedly the best authority in English. Williams was a remarkable teacher, constantly reminding his students that the purpose of their training was to enable them to train others in turn.
(Excerpt from The Frequency and Significance of Infarcts o...)
(Excerpt from Puerperal Infection Considered From a Bacter...)
(Excerpt from Obstetrics: A Text-Book for the Use of Stude...)
(Excerpt from Tuberculosis of the Female Generative Organs...)
His conservative tendencies were revealed not only in his professional life, but in his strong feeling that the simple life of his youth was more abundant than the complexity of later years. He was an ardent exponent of state as against national authority. Under Mayor Preston, with Dr. J. Hall Pleasants he reconstructed along thoroughly scientific lines old Bay View, Baltimore's city hospital, with a full-time staff in pathology, medicine, and surgery. He particularly advocated moderate fees. Early in 1931 he participated in the movement to repeal the Federal law forbidding the dissemination of birth-control literature through the mails.
He was honorary president of the Glasgow Gynecological and Obstetrical Society (1911 - 12), and president of the American Gynecological Society (1914 - 15) and of the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality (1914 - 16).
Williams was broadly educated, a lover of old books, a loyal and devoted friend, honest and straightforward in his thinking. His devotion to science never lessened his consideration for others or his humanity of spirit.
On January 14, 1891, he married Margaretta Stewart Brown, daughter of Gen. Stewart Brown. His second wife, Caroline (Theobald) Pennington, whom he married in April 1930, was the daughter of Dr. Samuel Theobald of the Johns Hopkins faculty. He had three daughters by his first marriage.
