John Henry Wyckoff, II was an American physician and medical educator.
Background
John H. Wyckoff, II was born on November 12, 1881, at Tindivanam in the South Arcot district of East Madras, India, the son of American missionary parents, John Henry Wyckoff, I, a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Emmeline Bonney. He was their second son and the third of their six children, but only he and two younger sisters survived infancy. When he was four the family returned to the United States because of his mother's poor health; she died of tuberculosis in 1890. With his father, who subsequently married again, young Jack returned (1892) to India, and the two years that he then spent there, at a station where there were no other American or English families, traveling with his father over the vast territory of his church labors and observing the manners, customs, and material needs of the people, left an indelible impression upon his developing mind and character.
Education
In 1895 he returned to the United States to begin his formal education. After attending school in Ridgewood, New Jersey, he went to the West Jersey Academy, from which he was graduated in 1901, and in the autumn of that year to Rutgers University. Two years later he entered the University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College (later the New York University College of Medicine), from which he received his M. D. degree in June 1907. These were years of extreme financial difficulties, eked out by working as a hotel porter at night. It was an experience he never forgot, and in later years it helped him to give advice and practical help to many young men and women entering the field of medicine.
Career
Upon graduation Wyckoff, II interned at Bellevue Hospital, and in 1914 he joined Dr. Hubert Vivian Guile in the conduct of the recently founded Social Cardiac Clinic in that hospital, an evening ambulatory clinic for cardiac patients regularly employed during the day, the first of its kind in the United States. So began Wyckoff's scientific career and his lifelong interest in heart disease. In 1918 he accepted an army commission and was in charge of the evacuation of the hospital center at Vichy, France, for which service he was cited by General Pershing. On his return to the United States he succeeded Dr. Guile as head of the cardiac clinic at Bellevue and was promoted to be clinical professor of medicine. In 1927 he became director of the Third Medical Division of Bellevue Hospital (the medical division under the supervision of New York University College of Medicine) and associate professor of medicine, and in 1932 dean of the College of Medicine, professor, and chairman of the department of internal medicine. His scientific career was centered in the problems of heart disease. His cardiac clinic and his teaching became known throughout the nation, and many students were drawn to careers of scientific investigation by his inspiring personality. His contributions as a medical educator were largely the result of a clear vision of future developments, especially the development of the clinical fields into important investigative and research services.
In 1924 he played a key role in the formation of the New York Heart Association, of which he became chairman, and for two years (1935 - 1936) he was president of the American Heart Association. In 1936 his preeminent position in medical education was recognized by his election as president of the Association of American Medical Colleges. John H. Wyckoff, II died suddenly on June 1, 1937, while at work, in Bellevue Hospital. His death was originally attributed, after autopsy, to coronary arteriosclerosis, but he had severe coronary pain and may have taken an overdose of morphine. He was buried in the family plot at Claverack, New York.
Achievements
Connections
In 1914, John H. Wyckoff, II married Elizabeth Crane Porter, by whom he had three children: Elizabeth Porter, Cornelia Ann and John Henry.