CHAPTER XXXII 



MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM C. GORGAS, M.C, 



U.S.A. 



HONORARY VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION IN 



I92O 



AITS meeting in April, 1920, in St. Louis, the National 

 Tuberculosis Association honored itself by the unanimous 

 election of General William C. Gorgas to the honorary vice- 

 presidency. General Gorgas had belonged to the Association 

 officially as a director since 1917, but as an honorary vice-president 

 he was ours only a few months, for he died on July 4, 1920. Of the 

 many obituaries which appeared at the time of the great General's 

 death, in all of which high tributes were paid to his achievements, 

 one of the most touching was that by his successor, Merritt W. 

 Ireland, Surgeon General of the United States Army. 



William Crawford Gorgas, the son of General Josiah and 

 Amelia Gayle Gorgas, was born in Mobile, Ala., October 3, 1854. 

 General Ireland writes of the parents and their son William as 

 follows : 



"General Josiah Gorgas was Chief of Ordnance of the Confederate Army 

 during the Civil War, and later president of the University of the South at 

 Sewanee, Tenn. His mother was Amelia Gayle, a famous beauty, daughter 

 of the War Governor of Alabama. In lineage and personality the late Surgeon 

 General was a typical southerner. He had what might be called the Alabama 

 temperament, a pleasant, suave, affable manner, and an attractive disposition, 

 which, wherever he went, made him many friends." 



William C. Gorgas received his preliminary and classical educa- 

 tion at the University of the South from which he was graduated 

 in 1875. He then entered Bellevue Hospital Medical College, re- 

 ceiving his degree in 1879. He subsequently served there as 

 intern for two years. Entering the army in 1880, he received a 

 commission as first lieutenant. His first post was Fort Brown, 

 Texas. It was here that we may say he was fortunate enough to 



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