JOHN W CALLNON M D

Sacramento County

Biographies

JOHN W. CALLNON, M.D.

JOHN W. CALLNON, M.D.--California may well be proud of her progressive, experienced and thoroughly competent men and women distinguished in medical science, including both her native sons and those who have been attracted to her balmy climate and intellectual society; and among these conscientious and helpful practitioners will naturally be mentioned Dr. John W. Callnon, who was born at Point Arena, Cal., on December 16, 1884. His father, Eugene W. Callnon, was a pioneer to the Golden State in 1858, having come hither with his mother, when he was a mere child, and he is still living, a witness to the eloquent story of California’s marvelous advancement since that time. He married Miss Florence Winfree of Kentucky, a charming and gifted woman, who proved the best kind of a helpmate for one of the builders of the new empire along the Pacific; she has passed away and is remembered for her exemplary and useful life.

John Callnon attended both the public grammar and the high school, and then, when old enough to master such difficult study, matriculated in what is now Cooper Medical College, of Stanford University, from which he was duly graduated in 1908, with the degree of M. D. He was an interne for a while in the German Hospital at San Francisco, and then was house doctor at the County Hospital. Later, he joined the staff of the San Francisco Emergency Hospital, where he had still better opportunity to do first-class, and often original work, and after that he was engaged in general practice in San Francisco. For climatic reasons he located at San Bernardino, Cal., and while practicing there he was superintendent of the San Bernardino County Hospital, and was county health officer, and while in office supervised the completion of the San Bernardino General Hospital, and the Tuberculosis Hospital.

In 1915 Dr. Callnon was commissioned a lieutenant in the Medical Reserve Corps of the regular army. In July, 1917, he was called to the colors and responded, serving overseas; and on his return to California, in 1919, he located in Sacramento, at first forming an association with Dr. J. B. Harris, and then starting out for himself. He belongs to the state and county medical societies, and to the American Medical Association. He is a member of Sacramento Post No. 61, American Legion, being past president of the board of trustees, and he is a member of the Veterans of Foreign wars and was post surgeon of that organization. In national politics a progressive Republican, he is at all times a broad-minded, patriotic American.

At San Francisco, in 1909, occurred the marriage of Dr. Callnon and Miss Euretta Pannenberg, of Washington, D. C., and they have three sons: Eugene, John and Francis. As a Master Mason Dr. Callnon is a member of Argonne Lodge, F. & A. M., San Francisco, composed entirely of ex-service men. He was made a thirty-second-degree Scottish Rite Mason in Caldwell Consistory, in Pennsylvania, on the eve of his departure for France. He is a charter member of Ben Ali Temple, N. M. S., in Sacramento, and he has been a member of Sunset Parlor, N. S. G. W. He is a member of the Phi Beta Phi, a college fraternity, and is a past president of the Lions Club. His hobbies are swimming and baseball, in both of which he is decidedly proficient. In academic days he won the state championship in quarter-mile swimming at the Olympic Club, in San Francisco.

Transcribed by Vicky Walker, 8/3/07.

Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With Biographical Sketches, Page 975. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA. 1923.