Background
Thewlis was born on December 4, 1889 in Wakefield, Rhode Island, the son of James E. Thewlis and Viola (née Wilcox), and received his Doctor of Medicine from the Bowdoin Medical School of Maine in 1911.
Thewlis was born on December 4, 1889 in Wakefield, Rhode Island, the son of James E. Thewlis and Viola (née Wilcox), and received his Doctor of Medicine from the Bowdoin Medical School of Maine in 1911.
As a neuropsychiatrist, he attended United States President Woodrow Wilson, following a stroke in 1919.
He is commemorated by the annual Thewlis Lecture on Gerontology and Geriatrics, established at the University of Rhode Island. Thewlis was one of the few physicians to take note of Ignatz Leo Nascher"s 1914 book, Geriatrics: The Diseases of Old Age and Their Treatment, and devoted his life"s work to care of the elderly and research into the diseases of old age. He authored "The Care of the Aged: Geriatrics", first published in 1919.
He died on June 3, 1956 and was cremated.