Curtis R. Day, Ph. G. ,M. D.
An ex-dean of the medical department of the University of
Oklahoma, Curtis R. Day, Ph. G., M. D., has worked out a career
typically American in character. Born a farmer’s son, his ambitions
early carried him into the realm of medicine, and after securing
through his own efforts the means with which to pursue his
professional studies, entered upon the practice of his calling with
such determination and assiduity that he soon attracted to himself
the favorable attention of the profession and the public alike, and
has since steadily advanced to a commanding position among the
medical men of Oklahoma.
His success in his chosen vocation is the more remarkable, in that he
is the only member of his family, so far as is known, who has engaged
in the practice of the medical profession.
Dr. Curtis R. Day
was born at Warrensburg, Missouri, December 3, 1806, and is a son of
Joseph M. and Jane C. (Buxton) Day. On his father’s side he is of
English and German descent, and on the maternal side of French and
English ancestry, and the American progenitors of both families came
to this country prior to the War of the Revolution, settling in
Virginia. Both families, also, have been noted for their longevity,
two of the Days having lived to be more than 100 years of age, while
a number of others passed the mark of four score years and ten.
Joseph M. and Jane C. Day were both born in North Carolina and were
brought to the West as children by their parents, the families being
pioneer settlers of Missouri. As a young man, Joseph M. Day was
engaged for several years in teaching school, in which vocation some
of the other members of the family had also labored, but later turned
his attention to agricultural pursuits, farming having been the
principal family occupation. Both he and the mother live at Edmond,
Oklahoma, hale and hearty in their eightieth year.
Curtis R. Day was
reared on his father’s farm in the vicinity of Warrensburg, Missouri,
and there his primary education was secured in the public schools.
Later this was supplemented by a course
at the State Normal School, Warrensburg, and when he left that
institution he began to teach school in the country in order to gain
the means necessary to prosecute his medical studies. Entering
Beaumont Hospital Medical College–now the medical department of
St. Louis University–he was graduated in March, 1891, with the
degree of Doctor of Medicine, and at once entered upon the practice
of his profession at Mayview, Missouri, where, with the exception of
one year at Lexington, Missouri, he was engaged in his calling for
nine years, from 1891 until 1900. During this time he served as
secretary of the Board of Pension Examiners of Lafayette County,
Missouri, and in 1900 was honored by election to the vice presidency
of the Missouri State Medical Society.
Leaving Missouri in
January, 1901, Doctor Day removed to Edmond, Indian Territory, where
he engaged in general practice, and while located there, in 1906, was
given the degree of Pharmaceutical Graduate by the Ohio Institute of
Pharmacy. At Edmond, as elsewhere, his abilities were speedily
recognized, not only as a physician, but as a man of sterling ability
who could be depended upon to represent his city’s best interests,
and during 1903, 1904 and 1905 he served in the capacity of city
treasurer. In 1907 he was elected to represent Oklahoma County in the
First State Legislature of Oklahoma, in which body he was known as a
working member, serving on the committees on public health,
sanitation and practice of medicine; education, pure food and drugs,
and dentistry.
At the close of his
legislative duties, Doctor Day went to Chicago, Illinois, where he
spent the following summer in special study of skin and
genito-uninary diseases, a field in which he has subsequently become
one of the leading specialists and authorities in the state. In the
fall of 1908 he returned to Oklahoma and removed his field of
practice to Oklahoma City, where he has continued to the present time
with a constantly-increasing practice, his offices now being located
at No. 319 State National Bank Building.
Doctor Day has not
only been known as one of his state’s leading practitioners, but an
educator whose labors have been
appreciated by the very highest honors that may come to a member of
his profession. For several years he was a member of the faculty of
the medical school of Epworth University, as professor of
genito-urinary diseases, and when that institution merged with the
University of Oklahoma and became the medical department of the state
university, he became head of the department of skin and genito-urinary diseases, holding this position until February 1, 1913, when
he was appointed dean of the medical department of the University of
Oklahoma, with the title of professor of pathology, serology and
clinical microscopy. Various other honors have been conferred upon
Doctor Day, and at this time he is attending pathologist on the staff
of St. Anthony’s Hospital and consultant dermatologist of the State
Insane Asylum at Norman, Oklahoma. He retains membership in the
various organizations of his profession, including the Oklahoma
County Medical Society, the Oklahoma State Medical Society, the
American Medical Association, the Central District Medical Society
and the Oklahoma City Academy of Medicine. Fraternally, he is
connected with the Knights of Pythias, Oklahoma City, the Modern
Woodmen of America, and the Phi Beta Phi
fraternity. He is also a member of the Oklahoma City Men’s Dinner
Club, and of the Presbyterian Church, to the movements of which he
has been a liberal contributor. In spite of his heavy and
multitudinous labors, he has found time always to assist other
public-spirited citizens in their efforts to secure a betterment of
civic conditions and no movement for the advancement of morality and
education fails to receive his support.
Doctor Day was
married in 1895 to Miss Agnes L. Bradley, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. D.
H. Bradley of Mayview, Missouri. Doctor Bradley was one of the
pioneer physicians of Western Missouri. To Doctor and Mrs. Day there
have come two sons: Curtis Bradley, born in 1903; and Maurice Joseph,
born in 1909. The pleasant family home is situated at No. 1625 West
Twenty-second Street, Oklahoma City.