Los Angeles County
Biographies
THOMAS JAMES
ORBISON, M.D., M.J.D.
Dr. Thomas James Orbison, neuropsychiatrist of Los Angeles, has been numbered among the prominent representatives of the medical profession in this city for more than a quarter of a century and has always confined his attention to the treatment of mental and nervous diseases. He was born in India on the 13th of November, 1866, his parents being James and Nancy Dunlop (Harris) Orbison, citizens of the United States. He was a student at Haverford College from 1884 until 1888 and a decade later received the M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania, which also conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Medical Jurisprudence. In 1899 he began the practice of his chosen profession in the city of Philadelphia, where he was also assistant instructor in mental and nervous diseases at the University of Pennsylvania, and likewise served on the staff of the Polyclinic Hospital and the orthopedic Hospital. It was in the year 1907 that he came to Los Angeles, California, where he has remained continuously to the present time, limiting his practice to mental and nervous cases, and he has served on the faculty of the Los Angeles county General Hospital, the Whittier State School, the Children’s Hospital, the Santa Rita Clinic and similar institutions. He has contributed numerous articles to medical journals, is the author of “Children, Inc.,” and specializes in medico-legal actions. His name is on the membership rolls of the Los Angeles County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Los Angeles Clinical and Pathological Society, the Los Angeles Society for Mental and Nervous Diseases, of which he was the first president, the Society for Research in Mental and Nervous Diseases, and the Southern California Academy of Criminology, of which he was at one time president. He is also a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
There is an interesting military chapter in the life record of Doctor Orbison. He was a member of the Pennsylvania National guard in 1885-86, served in the Spanish-American war in 1898 and was a member of the First Troop of the Philadelphia City Cavalry from 1899 until 1907. From 1917 until 1919, the period of America’s participation in the World war, he served with the American Expeditionary Forces as a captain in the Medical Corps. He was identified with the Baltic Mission as chief of the Latvian section, and he was awarded the Baltic Cross, the Latvian Jubilee medal and the Order of St. Vladimir, fourth class.
On the 6th of November, 1923, Doctor Orbison married Paula Poedder, his second wife. By a former marriage he has two daughters, Virginia Thomas and Joan Winsor. He is a member of the Greek letter societies Phi Kappa Sigma and Phi Alpha Sigma and is likewise a worthy exemplar of the teachings and purposes of the Masonic fraternity, to which he belongs. Politically he is a republican, while his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian Church.
Transcribed
11-12-12 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages
441-442, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES