Charles Donald O'Malley

Charles Donald O'Malley (April 1, 1907 – April 6, 1970) was an American historian of medicine and Latinist, recognized as a leading expert on the medicine of the Renaissance and, in particular, the life and work of the Renaissance anatomist Andreas Vesalius. He taught at Stanford University and at the University of California, Los Angeles. O'Malley was the president of the History of Science Society for a two-year term from 1967 to 1968 and of the International Academy of the History of Medicine from 1967 until his death. In 1924 he matriculated at Stanford University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1928 and an M.A. in 1929. From 1929 to 1943 he taught history and Latin at South San Francisco High School. He continued advanced studies in his spare time, publishing his first book in 1942, a translation of a work in Italian by jurist, philosopher, and engineer Jacopo Aconcio, with the translated title Of the Things That Have to Be Observed and Taken into Account in the Reading of Histories.

In 1943 he returned to Stanford University as a doctoral student and graduated with a Ph.D. in 1945 with a dissertation on Jacopo Aconcio titled Jacopo Acontio: His Life, Thought, and Influence.

In 1939 he married Dr. Frances M. Keddie, a dermatologist and dermatological researcher who had been working with J. B. deC. M. Saunders.

Career Upon completing his Ph.D., in 1946 O'Malley joined Stanford University's history department He and J. B. deC. M. Saunders continued their collaboration to publish extensively on Vesalius, Leonardo da Vinci, Gabriele Falloppio, Michael Servetus, and other Renaissance anatomists. O'Malley was the author or co-author of papers published in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Medical History, and several other journals. By 1958 O'Malley had published more than 20 papers directly or indirectly dealing with the life and work of Vesalius.

In the 1950s Franklin David Murphy, as the chancellor of the University of Kansas at Lawrence, unsuccessfully attempted to recruit O'Malley to become a professor at Lawrence.

In 1964, O'Malley completed his biography of Vesalius, Andreas Vesalius of Brussels, 1514–1564, to immediate acclaim,

O'Malley was one of the founding members at the first formal meeting in 1964 of the International Academy of the History of Medicine and was the academy's president from 1967 until his death. He was an honorary or corresponding member of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (London), and several other prestigious societies concerned with the history of medicine. In 1965 he received the History of Science Society's Pfizer Award and the Commonwealth Club of California's silver medal. In 1969 he received the ''

Selected publications Articles

(See Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana.)

(See Erasmus.)

Books and monographs ; ;