Los Angeles County
Biographies
FRANK NEALL ROBINSON
ROBINSON, FRANK NEALL , Physician, Monrovia, California, was born in Camden, New Jersey, May 30, 1874, the son of Heber Chase Robinson and Martha Neely (Taylor) Robinson. He married Mary Beatrice Martin, of Trenton, New Jersey, at Azusa, California, June 14, 1909. Dr. Robinson is descended from an old American family, his maternal great-grandfather having been Captain of the First Foot Infantry of Philadelphia, which saw service with “Mad Anthony” Wayne at the historic battle of Brandywine.
Dr. Robinson attended the public schools of Camden until 1885, then entered the Friends’ School of that city. In 1887 he became a student at Friends’ Central School in Philadelphia, and upon the completion of his course in 1890, took a preparatory medical course at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. In 1891, he enrolled in the Medical Department of the University and was graduated in the class of 1895 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, with honorable mention for his Thesis.
Following his graduation, Dr. Robinson served for a brief period as Assistant in the Genito-Urinary Department of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and left that to become Assistant to Professor McClure in the Wills Eye Hospital of Philadelphia. He remained in that capacity for a year and then became Assistant to Professor Gibbs, throat and ear specialist, serving for a year. During the years 1896, 1897 and 1898, Doctor Robinson held the post of Chief Surgeon of the Nose and Throat Department of the Camden City Dispensary, and in 1899, was elected Coroner of Camden County, New Jersey.
Dr. Robinson held the office of Coroner until 1902, at which time he was elected a member of the Camden City Council and he served his section of the city for about five years giving up his office in 1907 when he moved to California.
For two years after his location in Southern California, Dr. Robinson was the Assistant Medical Director of the Pottenger Sanitarium, and in this capacity, made a place for himself among the leading physicians of the Southwest. For several years prior to his removal from New Jersey, he had been among those scientists who devoted a great deal of time to the study of tuberculosis and, during the years 1906 and 1907, served as Vice President of the New Jersey Society for the Relief and Prevention of Tuberculosis.
Upon leaving the Sanitarium in 1909, D. Robinson established private practice in Monrovia and since that time has specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis and gastro-intestinal diseases, in both of which branches he is considered an authority.
Aside from his professional work, Dr. Robinson is a deep student and a persistent seeker for knowledge. In 1899, four years after he had begun his professional career, he went to Europe for post-graduate work, studying for a time under Nothnagle, von Neusser, Politzer and Wiederhofer in Vienna. Later he studied at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and in 1903, again returned to Europe. On this visit he studied with Franz Winkle, of Munich, expert in obstetrics, and during the same year spent some time in hospitals of Berlin in the study of internal medicine.
Devoted to his work, Dr. Robinson has been a prolific writer on medical topics and has been a liberal contributor to the scientific journals. His writings have dealt principally with tuberculosis and have been given publication in the Monthly Cyclopedia and Medical Bulletin, Medical Review, of St. Louis, Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, of New York, and the Southern California Practitioner, the organ of the Southern California Medical Society.
In addition to his medical practice, Dr. Robinson has taken an active interest in the development of the resources of California, and in the promotion of his adopted town, Monrovia.
His outside interests include various corporations, in which he is represented as stockholder or officer, devoted to the development of real estate or oil. Among others he is Director of the Midway Basin Oil Company.
Dr. Robinson’s professional affiliations include honorary membership in the Philadelphia Medical Society, Camden County and City Medical Societies, and membership in the Los Angeles County Medical Society and the Medical Society of the State of California. He also is ex-President of the Foothill Medical Society.
He is a member of the University Club, Los Angeles, and the San Gabriel Valley Country Club.
Transcribed
by Joyce Rugeroni.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 437,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2010 Joyce
Rugeroni.
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