Dr. Jacob Wheeler Bird

Jacob Wheeler Bird (1885–1959) was a medical doctor in Sandy Spring, Maryland.

Early years Bird was born in West River, Maryland, in 1885. He attended St. John's College in Annapolis, and he earned his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1907.

Career Bird worked three years as a resident and assistant superintendent of the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore. In 1911, Bird moved to Sandy Spring, Maryland, to take over the medical practice of Roger Brooke, whose death had left the area without a physician. Brooke's widow had specifically sought to sell the house to another doctor who would take over her late husband's medical practice. Bird named the house Glen Mary after his wife, Mary. He founded Montgomery General Hospital, which opened November 27, 1919, as the first hospital located in Montgomery County; it is now called MedStar Montgomery Medical Center. Bird served on the Maryland State Board of Health.

In 1959, over 1,000 friends and neighbors of Bird attended an event honoring his fifty-year career in medicine at Montgomery General Hospital. Governor J. Millard Tawes attended.

Personal life Bird married Mary McIntyre Wilson, a nurse, in 1910. They had three children. Mary died of pleuropneumonia at their home in 1917. They had been visiting their son and his wife, who were injured in the crash, in nearby Huntsville. Bird and his wife were buried in the church's cemetery.

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