San
Joaquin County
Biographies
ALLAN R. POWERS, M. D.
Recognized as one of the leading
physicians of the state, Dr. Allan R. Powers occupies
a merited position of prominence among his contemporaries. In Tracy, where he has made his home for the
past six years, he has so thoroughly interested himself in questions concerning
the physical welfare of the community that he has brought about results of
incalculable benefit, and as director of the city health department has brought
about many needed improvements for the sanitation of the city. He is unquestionably a man of much native
ability and with this has brought to bear in the prosecution of this profession
an application and earnestness which have given to him a merited success.
Dr. Powers is
a native of California, having been born at San Rafael, Marin County, on May
23, 1881. His father, Dr. George H.
Powers, was a native of Massachusetts, who served through the Civil War and in 1869
came to California, settling in San Francisco, where for twenty-five years he
practiced his profession and became a very prominent specialist in eye, ear,
nose and throat diseases. He passed away
in May, 1913, his wife, Mrs. Nellie (Chapman) Powers, a native of New Haven,
Connecticut, surviving him until 1917.
They were the parents of two sons and two daughters: Mrs. Katherine Powers Chapman resides in
Detroit, Michigan, and has two sons, Russell and George; George Herman, Jr.,
ear nose and throat specialist of Boston, married Miss Madeline Davis of
Boston, and has two daughters, Katherine and Dorothy; Allan Raymond, of this
review, and Miss Ruth Powers, a talented musician widely known on the Pacific
coast, who died in June, 1922.
Allan R. entered public school at
the age of six years, and nine years later was graduated from the Hitchcock
Military Academy at San Rafael, when he entered the University of California
and in 1901 received his B. S. degree; then entered Cornell University and
spent a year in postgraduate work, and the following year he spent in Yale,
receiving his M. F. degree in 1904 from that institution. Being a lover and student of the great
outdoors, he had selected his life’s work that of forestry,
and upon becoming personally acquainted with Theodore Roosevelt his interest
and determination to follow it increased.
After completing his higher education he became a member of the U. S.
Forestry Service and was sent to the Pacific Northwest, where he spent three
years of most varied and interesting experiences.
At the request of his father, he
left the Forestry Service and entered the University of
California Medical School in 1907 and in 1912 received his M. D. degree from
Cooper Medical College. His graduation
was followed by a term as intern at the Southern Pacific Hospital in San
Francisco; the same year, 1913, he opened his own office at Rio Vista, Solano
County, and practiced there for two years.
He was then appointed district surgeon of the Sacramento Electrical
Railroad. He then removed to South San
Francisco, San Mateo County, and entered the employ of the Pacific Coast Steel
Corporation as surgeon, where he remained for one year. During the following six months spent at Lake
Tahoe as surgeon for the Tahoe Tavern and Railroad, his experience proved both
profitable and pleasant. In November,
1916, he removed to Tracy, where he purchased the practice of Dr. S. E. D. Pinniger; he also received the appointment of district
surgeon of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
This being a large railroad junction and terminal, many were his
responsibilities. He still retains this
position. In 1919 he established his
offices on the second floor of the Bank of Tracy Building and assumed his
duties as director of the city health department.
The marriage of Dr. Powers in
Sacramento in 1913 united him with Miss Edith Marie Eaton of Los Angeles, a
cultured and gifted young woman, a leader in social, lodge and civic affairs of
Tracy. They are the parents of one son,
A. Raymond, Jr. During his college days,
Dr. Powers was identified with the S. A. E., the T. N.
E. and Skull & Keyes. He is master
of Mt. Osso Lodge No. 5460, F. & A. M., of Tracy; patron of the Eastern
Star; and member of the Knights of Pythias and the Native Sons of the Golden
West of Tracy. In politics Dr. Powers is a Republican of the Theodore Roosevelt type. From 1917 to the present time he has served
as chairman of the Red Cross of Tracy and the West Side section and his
splendid service is highly appreciated by the residents of the county. For the past three years he has been a
director of the Chamber of Commerce. He
is a valued member of the State Medical Association, and of the San Joaquin
County Medical Association.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Pages
1027-1028. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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