William Cline Borden

William Cline Borden (May 9, 1858 – August 18, 1934) was an American surgeon who was a key planner behind the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Borden was also dean of the School of Medicine at George Washington University.

According to the medical center website, Borden "was the initiator, planner and effective mover for the creation, location, and first congressional support of the medical center." For this reason, it is still referred to today as "Borden's dream."

Biography William Cline Borden was born on May 19, 1858, in Watertown, New York, to parents Daniel J. Borden and Mary Louisa Cline. He attended schools in Watertown and the Adams Collegiate Institute in Adams, New York. Borden graduated from George Washington University with an M.D. and was commissioned into the United States Army as a lieutenant and assistant surgeon in 1883. He married Jennie E. Adams on October 23, 1883. Five years later he was promoted to the rank of captain. During the Spanish–American War he was promoted to major and commanded a Division Hospital in Key West.

Borden published the papers "An Extemporized Section Flattener" (1887) and "The Origin and Development of the Fat Cell of the Frog" (1899). In 1898 Borden, at the time a major, became commandant and operating surgeon of the U.S. Army General Hospital Washington Barracks. In autumn 1901 he was made an instructor at the Army Medical School. He was interested in bacteriology and histology, published an article on "Practical Photomicrography by Use of the Oil Lamp" and experimented with early X-ray machines, writing the first textbook about X-rays in America in 1899. Borden was promoted to the rank of major brigade surgeon in 1898; he would reach major surgeon in 1908. When Congress finally appropriated funds for it in 1905, it was described as "primarily as a result" of his work. The hospital eventually became the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In the years immediately after 1905, Borden was "-probably the best informed medical officer on the subject of hospital construction."

As he watched the center's construction, Borden hoped to become commanding officer. However, Borden was overdue for a transfer from his position in Washingtonat the time, the Army had assigned him to a different detail every four yearsand other army officers feared that his familiarity with Congress made him a strong contender to become Surgeon General. In April 1907, a year before Walter Reed opened, Borden was transferred to run a hospital in the Philippines. In 1995, The Washington Post wrote that he would have been the center's "ideal first commander". Described as "disheartened", Borden retired after having a coronary attack at the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1909.

Borden was also a member of the American College of Surgeons, which he helped found, and several other organisations. In 1995, a building at Walter Reed was named after him.