Waller Smith Leathers

Background

Waller Smith Leathers was born near Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, the son of James Addison Leathers, a farmer and merchant, and Elizabeth (Pace) Leathers.

Education

After attending local schools, including the Miller School of Virginia, Leathers matriculated at the University of Virginia, from which he received a diploma of graduation in the schools of biology, geology, mineralogy and chemistry in 1892, and the M. D. degree in 1895. The following year he studied at the Johns Hopkins University. Between 1897 and 1907, he pursued advanced study during the summer months at the University of Chicago, the Long Island Biological Laboratory, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachussets, and the Harvard Medical School.

Career

Following graduation Leathers taught at the University of Mississippi, became head of the department of chemistry at the Miller School of Virginia (1896 - 1897), and then from 1897 to 1906 was professor of biology at the University of South Carolina. In 1898 he joined the Rocky Mountain Scientific Expedition.

Leathers began a quarter of a century of leadership in the development of medicine and public health in 1899. He joined the University of Mississippi faculty as professor of biology, aiding in the organization of the medical school, which opened in 1903. He held the post of dean of the medical school from 1910 to 1924, while continuing to teach and to participate in medical and public health affairs in the state. At the university, he served as professor of physiology from 1903 to 1910 and, then, reflecting his shift of focus to public health, as professor of physiology and hygiene until 1924.

From 1910 to 1917, he was university director of health for the Mississippi State Board of Health. In 1917 he was elected director of public health and executive officer of the Mississippi State Board of Health. In these positions, he was equipped to shape Mississippi medical and public health institutions to conform to the scientific and administrative models developed in Europe and the northeastern United States. During these years, he directed campaigns against a number of diseases, including typhoid fever, malaria, and hookworm; he helped establish a state tuberculosis sanatorium and a full-time county health department; and he appointed a state inspector for factories. He also helped revise the state's medical practice act. In 1911 and 1912, for example, he helped secure legislation restricting the practice of medicine in the state to graduates of medical colleges approved by the Council of Medical Education of the American Medical Association. In 1921, he supported pellagra research and control efforts of Joseph Goldberger by working to convince physicians and prominent laymen of the need for nutritional education.

Leathers' attention increasingly turned to the regional and national levels after he moved to Vanderbilt University to become professor of preventive medicine and public health in 1924. He, subsequently, became associate dean (1927) and dean (1928) of the School of Medicine. He was a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners from 1924 to 1946, serving as president from 1930-1934 and 1936-1942; president of the Southern Medical Association (1922 - 1923); vice-president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1928); vice-president and president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (1938 - 1943); chairman of the Committee on Professional Education; president (1940 - 1941) of the American Public Health Association; and president of the Association of American Medical Colleges (1942 - 1943).

As an advisor on scientific and medical affairs to the Rockefeller Foundation, he helped secure funds to construct a new wing, helped to develop the associated nurses school and to raise its standards. He served as an advisor, on medical and scientific affairs for the Commonwealth Fund from 1929 until his death, the American Red Cross (1939), and the United States Public Health Service (1931-1935 and 1937 - 1939). His interests--ranging from preventive medicine of such diseases as lead poisoning, tuberculosis, ascariasis, to the relationship between the health officer and the medical profession, to public health administration and personnel--were reflected in his writing. He authored or coauthored over 130 articles. He died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of seventy-one after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage.

Achievements

• Leathers was a nationally outstanding figure in medical education. A Democrat and a Methodist, a Southerner and a patriot, Leathers conformed to the values of his class and region sufficiently to inspire the confidence necessary to lead men and institutions toward new goals. Described as a man of excellent judgment and of high medical ideals, he helped to nationalize innovations in medical practice and education and to raise medical standards in the S.

Connections

Leathers married Sarah Ola Price in Oxford, Mississippi, on November 14, 1906. They had one daughter, Lucy Dell.

Father:

James Addison Leathers

farmer, merchant

Mother:

Elizabeth (Pace) Leathers

Spouse:

Sarah Ola Price

Daughter:

Lucy Dell Leathers