Lester Snow King

Background

Lester King was born on April 18, 1908, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was the son of Myron King and Sophie King.

Education

Lester King graduated from Harvard University. There he studied both philosophy and medicine and received a Doctor of Medicine in 1932.

Career

After graduation, Lester King studied silver-staining techniques with one of the world's authorities on neurological anatomy, Pío del Río Hortega, in Spain. He and his wife Marjorie left Madrid in March 1936, just before the bloody Spanish Civil War began. Then Lester researched the demyelinating diseases at the National Hospital Queen Square in London. After it, he back to the United States and taught at Harvard and during the late 1930s was an assistant at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research. From 1940 to 1942, Lester worked as a pathologist at a Connecticut hospital while also teaching the subject at Yale University. During World War II, he continued to work as a pathologist for the United States Army. After the war, Lester spent the remainder of his career in Chicago, where he was a pathologist at Illinois Masonic Hospital until 1963 and a professor at the University of Illinois Medical Center until 1964.

Also, Lester King was a writer. From 1963 to 1973, he was a senior editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, continuing as a contributing editor until 1978. Lester noted for his insistence on clear prose, and his desire to teach other physicians how to write more effectively led to his book, Why Not Say It Clearly. He was also the author of The Growth of Medical Thought, The Road to Medical Enlightenment, 1650-1695, Medical Thinking, and Transformations in American Medicine, among other works.

Achievements

• Lester King was well known as a pathologist, writer, and educator. He received the 1977 William H. Welch Medal for his scholarly contributions to the history of medicine. He also was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association for the History of Medicine in 1988. In 1964, Lester got the Boerhaave Medal from the University of Leyden.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The road to medical enlightenment, 1650-1695

    (From inside front cover: In the second part of the sevent...)

    1970
  • Medical Thinking

    (Lester King focuses on those aspects of medicine that rem...)

    1982
  • Why not say it clearly

    (Although this book has a medical orientation, its lessons...)

    1978
  • The Growth of Medical Thought 1963
  • Transformations in American Medicine 1991
  • The Philosophy of Medicine 1978
  • The medical world of the eighteenth century 1958
  • American Medicine Comes of Age 1840-1920 1984

Views

Quotations: "I realized that despite my attitudes in medical school, I'm supposed to earn my living as a pathologist."

Membership

• 

  Lester King was president of the American Association for the History of Medicine in 1974 and 1975.

  American Association for the History of Medicine , United States

• Chicago Medical Historical Society , United States

• 

  Department of History , United States

Connections

Lester King married Marjorie Meehan in December 1931. They had two children, Alfred and Frances.

Father:

Myron L. King

Myron King was a general practitioner in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mother:

Sophie King

Wife:

Marjorie Meehan

Son:

Alfred King

Daughter:

Frances King

colleague:

Pío del Río Hortega

Pío del Río Hortega was a Spanish neuroscientist. He was known as a founder of microglia.