John Alexander Witherspoon was an American physician and medical educator.
Background
John A. Witherspoon was born on September 13, 1864, at Columbia, Tennessee, the son of John McDowell Witherspoon and Mary Hanks. His father was a farmer, lawyer, and judge of the county court. His great-grandfather, in the paternal line, was an officer in the Revolutionary army and a nephew of John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and early president of the College of New Jersey.
Education
John Alexander received his academic education in the schools of Maury County and at Austin College, Sherman, Texas. He studied medicine for two years in the office of a physician at Columbia, Tennessee, before entering the University of Pennsylvania school of medicine, where he received the degree of M. D. in 1887. In later years he carried on further study in New York, as well as in Germany, France, England, and Scotland.
Career
Upon graduation he began the practice of medicine in his home town. In 1889 he joined the faculty of the medical department of the University of Tennessee, Nashville, as professor of physiology, and two years later became professor of medicine. He acted also, for a brief period (1892 - 1893), as professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. In 1895 he assisted in the reorganization of the medical department of Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, going abroad to study the medical schools of Europe and to buy supplies for the new department. Upon his return he became professor of medicine and clinical medicine, in which capacity he served until his death. Witherspoon's greatest contribution to medical science in the South was made through his work at Vanderbilt. In addition to his classroom lectures, he worked untiringly to raise the standards of medical education. He served on the council on medical education of the American Medical Association (1904 - 1913) and was active in the Association of American Medical Colleges, of which he was president in 1909. He assisted in the founding of the Southern Medical Journal (1908), was editor-in-chief during the first two years of its existence, and was an associate editor from 1911 to 1915. Over a period of thirty-two years, beginning in 1894, he contributed articles to various professional publications, including not only the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Southern Medical Journal, and the Southern Practitioner, but journals of the state associations of Tennessee, Texas, Illinois, and Wisconsin, as well as those of Louisville, Cincinnati, and Detroit. These articles dealt not only with the subject of medical education and its standards but with a variety of diseases and their treatment. Throughout the period of his connection with Vanderbilt University, Witherspoon engaged in private practice in Nashville. He was also active in city, state, regional, and national medical associations. In 1912 he became president of the American Medical Association, which he represented at the International Medical Congress in London, and subsequently served as a member of the House of Delegates of that body for eight years. His personality and his ability as a speaker won him prominence outside his profession as well: in 1909 he represented the American government at the dedication of the statue of George Washington in Budapest. John Alexander Witherspoon died on April 26, 1929, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Achievements
Membership
John A. Witherspoon was a member of numerous organizations, including the American Medical Association, the Association of American Medical Colleges. In addition to being a member of the American College of Physicians, he was at various times president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine, the Tennessee State Medical Association, the Southern Medical Association and the Mississippi Valley Medical Association.
Connections
On November 8, 1888, John Alexander Witherspoon married Cornelia Dixon, the couple had several children.