H. A. L. Ryfkogel, M.D., is not only one of the representative physicians and surgeons engaged in practice in the City of San Francisco, but has also been a prominent figure in connection with the educational work of his profession, and has served as state bacteriologist of California. He is the present dean and professor of surgery in the San Francisco Polyclinic Post-Graduate Medical College, as a valued member of the faculty of which institution he has served continuously since 1905. Incidentally it may be noted that he is a grand-nephew of Dr. W. F. McNutt, who contributes the medical chapter to this history. 

Doctor Ryfkogel is a native of Nova Scotia, where he was born on the 11^th of August, 1873, a son of Capt. Roger Ryfkogel and Sarah D. (Yuill) Ryfkogel, the former of whom was born in Holland and the latter in Nova Scotia, where their marriage was solemnized. Captain Ryfkogel was a skilled navigator, and was one of the well-known sea captains sailing out from Nova Scotia ports. His widow, of Scottish descent, and a niece of Dr. W. F. McNutt, of San Francisco, now maintains her home in this city, she having celebrated in 1923 the seventy-sixty anniversary of her birth. 

The preliminary education of Doctor Ryfkogel was obtained in the schools of Nova Scotia, and he was eighteen years of age when he went to Australia. While on the “Island Continent” he continued his studies for a time, and it was from that island that he came to California. In the medical department of the University of California he was graduated as a member of the class of 1894, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he traveled extensively through the Union and profited by the advantages of clinics in various cities. Thereafter he initiated the practice of his profession in San Francisco, but one year later he moved to Oakland, where he continued in successful practice five years, in the meanwhile having been for one year a member of the staff of the railroad hospital in that city, besides which he was a valued member of the Oakland board of health and gave effective service also as city bacteriologist. 

In the year 1900 Doctor Ryfkogel returned to San Francisco, where he has since continued his professional activities, with special attention given to surgery. In 1899 the Doctor held the office of state bacteriologist, and in 1906 he was city bacteriologist of San Francisco. From 1896 to 1907 Doctor Ryfkogel had charge of the department of bacteriology in the University of California, and since 1905, as previously noted, he has held the chair of surgery in the Polyclinic Post-Graduate Medical College of San Francisco. He was a member of the council of the California State Medical Society from 1916 to 1921, and in the latter year had the distinction of being president of this organization. The Doctor is one of the appreciative and valued members also of the San Francisco County Medical Society and the California Academy of Medicine, besides having a fellowship in the American Medical Society and a fellowship in the American College of Surgeons. In the Masonic fraternity he has received the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, and is affiliated also with the Islam Temple of the Mystic Shrine, San Francisco, in which latter organization he is a member also of the Royal Order of Jesters. His name is enrolled also on the list of members of the local Bohemian Club. 

In addition to careful and effective attention to his manifold professional ministrations and educational services, Doctor Ryfkogel has found time to make valued contributions to the periodical literature of his profession. 

June 23, 1923, recorded the marriage of Doctor Ryfkogel and Miss Elsie Rippe, who was born and reared in San Francisco and who is a daughter of John H. Rippe, a representative merchant in this city. By a previous marriage Doctor Ryfkogel is the father of one daughter, Beatrice. 

Transcribed by Donna L. Becker