Dr. Henry Pickering Walcott, (USA)

Dr. Henry Pickman Walcott

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/97798942/henry-p-walcott

DR. HENRY P. WALCOTT PASSES ON AT AGE OF 93

Renowned Physician Gave Lone and Varied Public Service —

Civil War Surgeon Dr. Henry P. Walcott, honorary president of the Massachusetts General Hospital, and a widely known physician of his day, passed away Friday morning at his home, 11 Waterhouse Street, at the age of 93. For a period of more than 40 years he was in the service of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a member of the board of health. His public service has been long and varied. Civil War Surgeon.

Born in Salem, December 23, 1838, the son of Samuel Baker and Marthan (Pickman) Walcott, he was educated at Harvard, receiving his A.B. degree there in 1858. He then studied for three years at the Harvard Medical School and was a student there when the Civil War broke out.

Four of his brothers entered the service and he was anxious to go, but found that he could not get an appointment as surgeon until he obtained his degree, so rather than wait for the Harvard commencement the following June, he enrolled at Bowdoin, where commencement took place in March, passed the examination and received his medical degree from that college in 1861.

He later studied for two years in Berlin and Vienna. From soon after the Civil War until 1881 he was a practising physician in this city. When Governor Benjamin Butler uncovered deplorable conditions at the Tewksbury almshouse in 1883, he asked Dr. Walcott to reorganize affairs there.

In 1886 Governor Robinson appointed him chairman of the state board of health and he served in that office until 1916. When the needs of the metropolitan Boston district for a better water supply became urgent, Dr. Walcott was selected as chairman of the committee that planned the Wachusctt reservoir. It was during this period that the metropolitan water system developed to meet the needs of the rapidly growing community, and the system devised by Dr. Walcott and his associates has served well until the present, although important expansion of the work has since developed.

Dr. Walcott was chairman, too, of the joint board created by the legislature to consider the treatment of the Charles River, and the Charles river basin was the outcome, an achievement of which Dr. Walcott always was proud. Another commission did the building according to the board’s plan. Overseer of Harvard and Acting President.

In 1887, Dr. Walcott was elected an overseer of Harvard University, serving until his election as a member of the Board of President and Fellows of the university in 1890. He was a Fellow of the university until his resignation in 1927, and served as president of the university in 1900-01 during the absence of the late Charles W. Eliot.

One of Dr. Walcott’s greatest interests was the Massachusetts General hospital, of which he was president of the corporation. He had been a trustee of the hospital for thirty years and had a leading part in bringing about many of the important developments at that institution, which is noted fdr the progress in medicine and surgery that has been made there. Member of Many Societies He was a former president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, the American Public Health Association, and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He had also served as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was president of the fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography at Washington in 1912.

He was an honorary Fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute of Great Britain, a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. He was a trustee of Phillips Exeter Academy and was a director of the Harvard Alumni Association from 1919 to 1922. As commissioner general for the League of Nations he was in charge of the financial reconstruction of Hungary from 1924 to 1926.

Survivors Dr. Walcott’s sole immediate survivor is a son. Judge Robert Walcott, of 152 Brattle Street; and there are seven grandchildren. Dr. Walcott’s wife was Charlotte Elizabeth Richards.

Funeral Services Funeral services were held Sunday in the new Harvard Memorial chapel at which Bishop William Lawrence officiated and Harvard choir sang twice during the services. The organ was played by George Wallace Woodworth, instructor of music at Harvard. Burial was at Mt. Auburn. President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard headed the list of honorary bearers. The others were Henry L. Shattuck, treasurer of the college; Dr. Roger I. Lee, Dr. Alfred Worcester, Dr. Edmund H. Stevens. Dr. William T. Councilman, William E. Endicott, George R. Agassiz, Dr. Frederick A. Washburn, and Professor Bliss Perry. Charles Walcott, a nephew, was head usher, assisted by Thomas Barbour. Dr. Edward, Harding, Edward J. Holmes. Dr. Fred R. Jouett, Frank Hunnewell, W. Rodman Peabody, Dr. Wyman Richardson, Dr. Richard P. Strong. Dr. John Taylor and three grandnephews of Dr, Walcott, Eustis Walcott, Dr. Charles Folsom Walcott, Richard Walcott, Charles Weston, and Melville Weston.

As the body was borne from the chapel for burial in Mt. Auburn Cemetery, the great bell high in the steeple of the church tolled at intervals of 20 seconds in honor of the man whose long service to Harvard and to public health once gained him the tribute, “the greatest public servant the commonwealth has ever known.”

The Cambridge Tribune, Volume LV, Number 37, 18 November 1932