Los Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM
BYRAM KERN, M.D.
In the treatment of mental and nervous diseases, one of the most eminent practitioners of southern California was the late Dr. William Byram Kern of Los Angeles. He came to this state with an established reputation in this most specialized branch of the medical profession and here, both as superintendent of the Norwalk State Hospital and in private work as a psychiatrist, he created for himself a standing unsurpassed. Dr. Kern was born in Fayetteville, Indiana, April 17, 1862 and was a son of Lewis David and Virginia (Armstrong) Kern.
Doctor Kern received his public school education mostly in Terre Haute, Indiana, in which city he lived in the home of a maternal uncle when he was very young. Having determined to enter the profession he later began his medical studies at the Missouri Medical College, and from here was duly graduated. Subsequently, he continued his studies at the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons and at Rush Medical College in Chicago. He began general practice in Cairo, Nebraska, In the year 1887. Nervous diseases and psycopathic (sic) cases were embraced in the field to which he gave his closest and most inspired study and research, and to which his outstanding talents were particularly well fitted. Much reading and direct observation were given by him to the mastery of his work, and he availed himself of every resource to perfect his technique and knowledge of the subject. For a period of fourteen years he was affiliated with the Hospital for the Insane in Hastings, Nebraska, which institution is the largest of its type in that state, and for ten years of that time he was superintendent. In his conduct of this hospital, Doctor Kern introduced modern methods which he had formulated, and in his regime at Hastings the institution became famous all over the country for its improved methods and new theories used in the treatment of patients. In the year 1912 Doctor Kern came to California, bringing with him his fame as a psychiatrist and neurologist. Recognition was accorded to him soon afterward and he was appointed superintendent of, and opened the California State Hospital in Norwalk, where he duplicated the fine success he had achieved in Hastings. The present efficiency and standing this large institution in southern California is in large measure due to the methods employed by Doctor Kern during his incumbency at that place. Having accomplished so much Doctor Kern then resigned from Norwalk for the purpose of devoting his entire time and energy to the private practice of psychiatry which he had begun in Los Angeles in 1914. The response to his efforts had been so encouraging and the results of his work so satisfactory that he firmly believed that greater results and more widespread alleviation of mental ills could be produced by adopting the general public as his field. Accordingly, in 1920, he made this change and then for twelve years he justified in every manner the decision. At the time of his death, which occurred in Los Angeles October 14, 1932, when he was in the seventy-first year of his age, he was in the midst of his duties, with a reputation extending the length of the Pacific coast. He was a man of high ethical standards, and his own profession honored him profoundly. He was prominent in the affairs of the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Los Angeles County Medical Society.
On December 11, 1889, in Cairo, Nebraska, Doctor Kern took as his wife Mary M. Drennen, a daughter of William and Margaret (Speer) Drennen. Mrs. Kern was very active in the Order of the Eastern Star and is past worthy matron of Cement chapter, No. 115, in Wood River, Nebraska. To the marriage of Dr. and Mrs. Kern there was born one daughter, Helen, who is widely known as a director of kindergarten work in the Los Angeles public schools.
Doctor Kern was always actively interested in social and fraternal affairs and possessed multitudes of friends among those who knew him during his career. He was a member of all the Masonic bodies, and was past master of the blue lodge in Wood River, Nebraska, where some of the earlier years of his life were passed.
Transcribed 7-7-12
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 143-145,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES