Physician
Centurion, 1915–1955
Born 10 November 1869 in Waterbury, Connecticut
Died 18 November 1955 in Greenwich, Connecticut
Buried Mountain Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum
, Bridgeport, Connecticut
Proposed by Virgil P. Gibney and Edward B. Bronson
Elected 3 April 1915 at age forty-five
Century Memorial
Joseph C. Roper graduated from New York University Medical College in 1896. He became an attending physician at the New York Hospital, first in pediatrics and later in internal medicine, and he taught at the Cornell Medical School and then at Bellevue Hospital.
He had a great gift for comforting those distressed in mind as well as in body. He seemed to inspire his patients with the desire to get well. His knowledge was sure, and he was surrounded with an aura of friendliness and good will.
In appearance he was short and stout and with a roseate complexion and jolly exterior. He was obviously very powerful physically, and perhaps this contributed to inspire confidence in him. He had an even temper and a ready wit, and these were combined with a sympathetic understanding that endeared him to his friends. He was essentially a doctor’s doctor—respected and beloved, a sure refuge in illness and suffering.
In the long half century that he racticed medicine in the City his wisdom ever increased with the years, and at the last his reward was the gratitude of a legion of spirits, once troubled, whom he had delivered from evil and restored to the way of the Good Life.
George W. Martin
1956 Century Association Yearbook
