Norman T. Kirk

Norman Thomas Kirk (January 3, 1888 – August 13, 1960) was a surgeon who specialized in bone and joint surgery during World War 1 and was Surgeon General of the Army from 1943 to 1947 during the height of the second World War.

Biography Norman Thomas Kirk was born on January 3, 1888, in Rising Sun, Maryland, to Thomas Kirk and Anna Brown.

Kirk attended Jacob Tome School and graduated in 1906. He then attended the University of Maryland. While in school he worked as a druggist during school breaks. He received his medical doctorate degree in 1910. He then worked as the resident physician at the University Hospital in Baltimore.

In 1910, Kirk began working as a clinical assistant at the United States Soldiers' Home Hospital, Washington, D.C. Kirk enlisted in the Army Medical Reserve Corp on May 29, 1912, and was commissioned as a first lieutenant. He graduated from the Army Medical school in 1913 and was stationed in Texas City Texas. He was then moved out of the reserve and into the active Army medical corp.

World War 1 During 1914 he worked at a Field Hospital in Vera Cruz, Mexico during an expedition against the forces of President Victoriano Huerta of Mexico.

Between 1915 and 1916 he worked in the Panama Canal Zone at Fort Grant and Fort Sherman. He was then transferred to the base hospital in Brownsville Texas in July 1917. He was transferred again in 1917 to the Medical Officers' Training Camp at Camp Greenleaf in Georgia. He worked there as a medical instructor until 1919. On September 21, 1917, he married Anne Duryea, a nurse. After appointment, he was promoted to Major General. Kirk worked to create uniform protocols for treating patients with amputations to improve care for soldiers. The improvements in wound treatment reduced the mortality rate of injured soldiers to half of the level seen during World War 1. He received the distinguished service medal in May 1945.

In 1946, he proposed the establishment of a permanent Medical Service Corp in the Medical Department of the regular army.

He retired from his position as surgeon general at the end of his four-year term on July 31, 1947.

Retirement After retirement from the army, he became a governor of the American College of Surgeons and also worked on the American Board of Surgery.

He died in Washington, D. C. at Walter Reed General Hospital on August 13, 1960.