Katherine Rotan Drinker

Katherine Rotan Drinker (1889 – March 15, 1956)[1] was an American physician.

Early life

Katherine Rotan was born in 1889[1] to mother Kate Sturm McCall Rotan[2][3] and father Edward Rotan of Waco, Texas. She was one of nine children.[3]

Education

Drinker attended Bryn Mawr College, graduating in 1910. She then attended the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1914 with her medical degree.[4]

Career

In 1916, Drinker began a job at Harvard University School of Public Health.[4] She and her husband researched the Radium Girls, industrial workers who became ill after regularly ingesting minute amounts of radium. Their publication on the subject is now regarded as "a classic in the field".[5] When the Journal of Industrial Hygiene was established in 1919, Drinker was one of its first managing editors.[6]

Death

Drinker died on March 15, 1956, in Cataumet, Massachusetts, at the age of 66.[4] She died of leukemia.[5]

Personal life

In 1910, Drinker married Cecil Kent Drinker, a fellow physician and founder of the Harvard School of Public Health.[7] They had a daughter, Anne Sandwith Zinsser, and a son, Cecil K. Drinker, Jr.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b "KATHERINE ROTAN DRINKER, 1889-1956 and Cecil Kent Drinker, 1887-1956". A.M.A. Archives of Industrial Health. 15 (1): 74–75. 1957. PMID 13393814. Retrieved 2020-05-20.
  2. ^ Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada. Vol. 1. American Commonwealth Company. p. 704.
  3. ^ a b "Edward and Kate Sturm McCall Rotan, Inclusive: 1850-1958, undated". Texas Archival Resources Online.
  4. ^ a b c "Dr. Katherine Drinker". The New York Times. 16 March 1956. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  5. ^ a b c "Died". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 19 March 1956. Retrieved 19 May 2020.
  6. ^ Harvard Alumni Bulletin. Vol. 21. 1918. pp. 595–596.
  7. ^ "Lab partners, life partners". Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.