Physician
Centurion, 1912–1914
Born 12 March 1845 in East Troy, Wisconsin
Died 7 April 1914 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Buried Mount Hope Cemetery
, Norwich, New York
Proposed by William M. Polk and Alton B. Parker
Elected 7 December 1912 at age sixty-seven
Century Memorial
Joseph Decatur Bryant was a strong and honest personality. Coming from a western farm, he won his medical education by his own exertions, graduating from Bellevue in 1868. For two years he was an interne there; and then became an assistant to the Professor of Anatomy. He was appointed Professor of Anatomy at Bellevue in 1877, of Clinical Surgery in 1883, and of the Principles and Practice of Surgery in 1898, the year in which he so earnestly advocated the union of the Bellevue and New York University Medical colleges. He was connected with many other hospitals and dispensaries, and the author of authoritative works on surgery. Fearlessly and efficiently he served the city, first as Inspector in the Health Department, afterwards as Health Commissioner, appointed by Mayor Hewitt, and then as a member of the State Board of Health. He was the physician and intimate friend of Grover Cleveland, and his companion and rival on many a fishing trip.
Henry Osborn Taylor
1915 Century Association Yearbook
