Department History

This all began in 1837 with the founding of Saint Louis University School of Medicine and the naming of the pioneer physiologist and military surgeon William Beaumont as Professor of Surgery. The system existed in various forms under various titles and with varying periods of interruption until 1903 with the merging of the William Beaumont and Marion Sims Schools of Medicine to form the Saint Louis University School of Medicine on Grand Boulevard in central St. Louis. Between World War I and World War II, the Department of Surgery was well defined with leadership of considerable local and national reputation.

In 1950, the Department of Surgery underwent a remarkable change. Most importantly, the departmental leadership was assumed by C. Rollins Hanlon, MD, who brought open heart surgery to the area and established the full-time academic faculty characteristic of the department. Dr. Hanlon remained chairman until 1969 when he was succeeded by his pupil, resident and associate - Vallee Willman, M.D. - for the next 26 years. Dr. Willman, also a heart surgeon, guided the Department to its current level of maturity and national visibility. Dr. Willman retired from the chair in 1995 and was succeeded by Dr. Thomas A. Miller, a gastrointestinal surgeon, who previously was on the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School in Houston. Dr. Miller was Chairman from 1996-1998. Dr. Gary Peterson served as the acting chairman from 1998-1999. Dr. Robert Johnson joined the department as Chairman in October of 1999. Prior to this position, Dr. Johnson served as the Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts and as Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Saint Louis University is a private, Catholic, Jesuit University, sponsored and assisted by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the Catholic religious order founded by Saint Ignatius Loyola in 1540. It is private by reason of its charter granted by the Missouri Legislature in 1832. It is "Catholic" in its philosophy and commitments Credo of Saint Louis University. It is not church-related, in that it neither receives financial support from a church body, nor is it under the jurisdictional control of a church body. It is similar to other private universities in that ultimate governing responsibility is vested in an independent Board of Trustees.

Saint Louis University traces its history back to the foundation of Saint Louis Academy in 1818, three years before Missouri became a state. Founded by the Right Reverend Louis DuBourg, Bishop of Louisiana and the Floridas, the Academy was renamed "Saint Louis College" in 1820. In 1823, Belgian Jesuits from Maryland arrived in Missouri at the urgent invitation of Bishop DuBourg and John C. Calhoun, Secretary of War. They settled at Florissant, near St. Louis, where they organized an Indian school. Within a short time after this educational venture, they assumed direction of Saint Louis College, which had been administered for its first nine years by members of the diocesan clergy. On December 28, 1832, Saint Louis College received its charter as "Saint Louis University" by an act of the Missouri Legislature. It was the first university charter west of the Mississippi River.

A medical department was established in 1842: Twenty-nine students were enrolled from six states and one foreign country. At that time, there were only eight universities (Pennsylvania, Columbia, Harvard, Transylvania, Maryland, Willoughby, New York, Yale) and one college (Dartmouth) with functioning medical departments. Only two were west of the Alleghenies, and none were west of the Mississippi.

Sensing increasing anti-Catholic and emigrant attitudes, the medical department was established with its own board of trustees representing the eight dominant religious persuasions in the city. "In order to free this department from all prejudice of a sectarian character, the Trustees shall be selected from various religious persuasions as follows: A. L. Mills and Warwich Tunstall from the Presbyterian; James Lucas and J. G. Dinnies from the Catholic; Reverend W. G. Elliot and J. B. Crockett from the Unitarian; Doctor B. G. Farrar and C. P. Billon from the Episcopalian; Colonel John O'Fallon and J. H. Gay from the Methodist; S. C. Davis from the Baptist; George Collier from the Reformed Presbyterian." Nonetheless by 1855, anti-Catholic attitudes fostered in large part by the Native American Party (Know-Nothing Party) erupted in violence at the medical school and it was dissociated from the University to protect the University from terrorist attack. That medical department of Saint Louis University was reconstituted as Saint Louis Medical College sponsored by the medical society, and later (1891) was taken over by Washington University as that university's school of medicine.

In 1903 Saint Louis University purchased the combined Marion Sims - Beaumont Medical Colleges, and along with the purchase of Mullanphy Hospital opened the current medical school at its present site on Grand Avenue.

The discipline of Surgery has been prominent throughout the history of medical education at Saint Louis University. William Beaumont, who had been mustered-out of the army while at Jefferson Barracks and had established a practice in St. Louis, was among the original faculty. James Vance Prather and Alexander Pope also headed Surgery in the original establishment. Both were very noteworthy "western" physicians.

Following reestablishment of the medical school in 1903 until 1950 the department, as were all departments, was directed by "geographic full-time" surgeons. Prominent among these surgeons was William T. Coughlin who held the position for 20 years (1920-1940). It was Dr. Coughlin that initiated a surgical residency program. He was a facile surgeon and most dedicated physician. His literature contributions were numerous and delt with diverse topics. It was during his tenure that student and resident instruction was extended to several affiliated Catholic hospitals and to the St. Louis City public institutions. His residents became fiercely loyal. In 1935, Firmin Desloge Hospital (now Saint Louis University Hospital) was completed, providing a fine clinical laboratory on the University campus. This became his home until he died of myocardial infarction in 1940. Dr. Coughlin never married and had no close relatives. He bequeathed his estate jointly to Saint Louis University and the Sisters of St. Mary for the purpose of establishing a hospital for children, Cardinal Glennon Hospital for Children, on the University campus, opened in 1956.

In 1950, in keeping with the national trend, Dr. C. Rollins Hanlon was recruited as full-time Chairman of the Department of Surgery; the first full time clinical chairman at the University. Born in Baltimore, Dr. Hanlon received the baccalaureate degree from Loyola University, and the Doctor of Medicine degree from Johns Hopkins University. His postgraduate studies in surgery at Johns Hopkins, the University of California and Cincinnati General Hospital were interrupted during World War II by a period of service in the United States Navy, which included an assignment to the China mainland. Following military service, he completed his residency at Johns Hopkins and joined the faculty in the Department of Surgery. In 1949, he and Margaret M. Hammond, an alumna and staff physician in pediatric cardiology at Johns Hopkins, were married. Just prior to their arrival in St. Louis, the first of their eight children was born. Dr. Hanlon, having been closely associated with Dr. Blalock and the innovative cardiac operative procedures at Johns Hopkins, quickly established himself and Saint Louis University as a regional research and clinical center for the study and treatment of cardiac conditions. He was a very productive author, clinician and teacher. He established a teaching program in surgery that set an example throughout the University and won wide respect throughout the nation. Literate and articulate, the elegant surgeon and the complete physician, he has set and achieved goals in his professional, intellectual, and personal life that have been an inspiration to many young physicians. In 1969 he was sought out for, and accepted the directorship of the American College of Surgeons. He was elected president of that organization 1986-1987, and having been president of the American Surgical Association in 1981-82 he is the sole individual to have held these three positions.

During Dr. Hanlon's chairmanship, the department steadily grew to a complement of thirty full-time faculty members with residencies in general, cardiothoracic, neuro, plastic, and urologic surgery. Upon Dr. Hanlon's assuming the directorship of the American College of Surgeons, Dr. Vallee Willman was appointed Chairman of the Department. He had received his medical education at Saint Louis University, graduating in 1951, the year after the arrival of Dr. Hanlon. Following a first postgraduate year at Philadelphia General Hospital, he returned to the surgical residency at Saint Louis University, and upon completion joined the faculty. During his chairmanship he was joined by a loyal cadre of associates that continued the investigational and research thrusts that Dr. Hanlon had initiated. The full-time complement increased to forty-five. Educational activities were conducted at several off-campus private institutions as well as at the St. Louis Veterans Administration Hospital.

During Dr. Willman's chairmanship there was a continued emphasis on investigational activities. A bequest from Dr. Theodore Cooper, a former Saint Louis University student, resident, and faculty member, permitted the construction of a research facility in Dr. Cooper's memory -- the Theodore S. Cooper Surgical Research Institute. This institute is highly functional and facilitates faculty and resident research.

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