PHILLIPS, JOHN

PHILLIPS, JOHN (19 Feb. 1879-15 May 1929), physician, faculty member of Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and a founder of the CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION, was born in Welland, Ontario, Canada, the son of Robert and Ann Jane (McCullough) Phillips. He received his medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1903, then moved to Cleveland as an intern at Lakeside Hospital until 1905 and as resident in medicine until 1906. He joined the WRU faculty in 1906 as assistant professor of therapeutics. In 1917-18 he served as a captain in the medical corps of the U.S. Army. As a practicing physician, Phillips was mainly concerned with internal medicine and diseases of children. He was one of the founders, with Drs. GEO. W. CRILE, FRANK E. BUNTS, and WM. E. LOWER, of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, under whose auspices the Cleveland Clinic was opened in 1921, and the Cleveland Clinic Hospital in 1924. With the other founders, Phillips established an endowment, enlarged by public donations, for care of the sick and for medical research. Although he continued at WRU, he relinquished his duties as a practicing physician to direct both the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic Hospital. As a physician, Phillips was variously associated with Lakeside Hospital, Babies Dispensary & Hospital, and St. John's Hospital. He contributed about 70 articles to medical journals and was a member of many medical societies. He was also a trustee of the CLEVELAND MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOC. Phillips married Cordelia Sudderth on 18 Sept. 1907 and they had a son, John E. Phillips was killed in the CLEVELAND CLINIC DISASTER and was buried in LAKE VIEW CEMETERY.


John Phillips Papers, WRHS.


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