Background
William H. Wilmer, Sr. was born on August 26, 1863, in Powhatan County, Virginia, a son of Richard Hooker Wilmer, Episcopal Bishop of Alabama and Margaret Brown, and a grandson of William Holland Wilmer, Protestant Episcopal clergyman.
(Excerpt from Aviation Medicine in the A E. F When the Un...)
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William H. Wilmer, Sr. was born on August 26, 1863, in Powhatan County, Virginia, a son of Richard Hooker Wilmer, Episcopal Bishop of Alabama and Margaret Brown, and a grandson of William Holland Wilmer, Protestant Episcopal clergyman.
Wilmer, Sr. was educated at the Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia, and later at the University of Virginia, graduating with the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1885.
He then served as intern in Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City for eighteen months, where he first met Dr. Emil Gruening, an eminent ophthalmologist of that day, who stimulated his interest in the subject. In 1886 - 1887, he studied ophthalmology in New York and Europe.
Later Wilmer, Sr. became Gruening's office assistant, a position which he held for two years.
In 1889 he moved to Washington, D. C. , where he opened an office for the independent practice of his specialty. Wilmer's success in private practice was rapid and marked. Of distinguished appearance, he combined a remarkable understanding of the psychology of patients suffering from eye diseases with a sound knowledge of clinical ophthalmology and excellent operative ability. These qualities soon brought him recognition as a diagnostician and ophthalmic surgeon of the highest order.
In 1906 he was appointed professor of ophthalmology in the Medical School of Georgetown University; he remained in private practice in Washington until the entrance of the United States in World War I in 1917, when he entered active military duty. Early in the war it was discovered that the newly developed Air Service required higher physical standards than the ground service, especially for sight and hearing and nervous stability. As surgeon in charge of the medical research laboratory of the Air Service at Mineola, Long Island, New York, Wilmer, Sr. helped to develop the requisite standards and the apparatus and technique for testing them.
Later (1918 - 1919), in a similar position at Issoudun, France, he directed researches in depth perception, muscular fatigue, and other factors influencing the disability of flyers.
Returning to Washington in 1919, Wilmer, Sr. again took up private practice. His fame as practitioner and ophthalmic surgeon now became worldwide, his patients including a succession of presidents and King Prajadhipok of Siam.
In 1922 a group of his friends and grateful patients began to raise funds for what became the William Holland Wilmer Foundation, their original intent being to build an independent institute for ophthalmic research in Washington. The establishment of such an institute proving impossible, the Wilmer Foundation then joined with the Johns Hopkins University in a request to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Commonwealth Fund for funds for an ophthalmological institute which should be the full-time department of ophthalmology of the Johns Hopkins University Medical School and an integral part of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. This appeal was successful, and approximately $4, 000, 000 was finally raised for the purpose.
In 1925 Wilmer, Sr. was appointed a full-time professor of ophthalmology in the Johns Hopkins University and ophthalmologist-in-chief of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute began its work. For several years it occupied temporary quarters on the hospital grounds while Wilmer, Sr. prepared plans for a permanent building and organization.
In the summers of 1924 and 1925 he had traveled through Europe for the purpose of studying the physical layout and organization of the various successful European ophthalmological institutes.
Construction of the new building was begun in 1927, and the completed plant was dedicated in 1929. In the organization of the Institute, Wilmer, Sr. stressed that the clinical work must be sound and the records complete. He organized the service on the plan of various sub-departments - ophthalmic physiology, pathology, chemistry, etc. - each in close relationship to the corresponding university department. A staff of interested scientists and clinicians was assembled, various original investigations were undertaken, and under Wilmer's guidance and administration the first full-time, fully financed, and fully organized university department of ophthalmology in America was successfully established. It was the most important task of his life. Wilmer, Sr. remained as professor and director of the Institute up to his retirement in 1934 at the age of seventy. After his retirement he returned to Washington to live, and it was there that he died on March 12, 1936, of a sudden heart attack. William H. Wilmer, Sr. was buried in the crypt of the National Cathedral in Washington.
William Holland Wilmer, Sr. was a distinguished ophthalmologist as diagnostician and surgeon, who influenced military ophthalmology through his research and his patient care. For his war work, in which he demonstrated marked administrative ability, Wilmer was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and appointed a brigadier general in the Medical Reserve Corps in 1921. In addition, Honorary degrees were conferred on him by Georgetown University, Princeton, New York University, and Johns Hopkins, and he was made a commander of the Legion of Honor (France). At his farm in Virginia William H. Wilmer, Sr. established a rare collection of evergreens.
(Excerpt from Aviation Medicine in the A E. F When the Un...)
A member of numerous medical societies in America and abroad, William H. Wilmer, Sr. was an honorary member of many others. He was one of the founders of the American College of Surgeons and was president of the American Ophthalmological Society (1923).
On October 6, 1891, William H. Wilmer, Sr. married Re Lewis Smith, by whom he had three children.
Richard Hooker Wilmer Richard Hooker Wilmer was an American clergyman, who served as the second Bishop of Alabama in the Episcopal Church.
