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Roy Donaldson McClure
- Wayne State University Press
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Roy Donaldson McClure 1882-1951 "Dr. McClure went to Fair Lane every day to give Henry a checkup. Much to his indignation, Mr. Fordsummoned his chiropractor, Dr. Coulter, for treatments.,, —Charles E. Sorensen * The name McClure has been prominently associated with Henry Ford Hospital for seventy-five years. Roy D. McClure was the hospital's first chief surgeon and Henry Ford's favorite physician. Today, his son Douglas T. McClure is chairman of the board of trustees of Henry Ford Health System , with its thirty-three outpatient centers throughout southeastern Michigan. Roy Donaldson McClure was born January 17, 1882, in the little village of Bellebrook, Ohio. His father, James Albert McClure, was a medical doctor, as were his grandfather and great-grandfather. His great-grandfather had practiced medicine from horseback. His mother was Ina Hester Donaldson McClure. He graduated from North High School in Columbus, Ohio, in 1900. In 1904, he graduated from Ohio State University, where he was captain of the basketball team, manager of the football team, and classmate of Charles F. Kettering, the famous General Motors inventor. McClure next attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he received his M.D. degree in 1908, and he became house surgeon of New York Hospital from 1909 to 1912. Then he returned to Johns Hopkins for three more years. Meanwhile, in Detroit, plans were being made for a new Detroit General Hospital. An association had been formed of which Henry Ford was treasurer as well as a major financial donor. When progress on the hospital began faltering in 1914, Ford reimbursed the other donors and took over the completion of the hospital. The hospital became the property of Henry Ford and became known as Henry Ford Hospital. Ford had definite ideas about the operation of a hospital. He had visited the renowned Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and had in * From Charles E. Sorensen, My Forty Years with Ford (New York: W. W. Norton, 1956), p. 266. 197 Henry's Lieutenants mind similar services for the average working man. Cost to the patient was to be uniformly moderate, and everyone should pay. The doctors would be paid an adequate salary by the hospital and would be solely responsible to the hospital and its patients and not be involved in private practice. So Henry Ford Hospital, from the start, became a "closed" hospital and still operates as such. Newspapers exaggerated, however, in stating the new hospital would have 1,000 private rooms and would charge two dollars a day for room, board, and nurse attendant. To staff the hospital in 1915, Ford assigned Ernest Liebold as general manager. He chose a Detroit doctor, Frank J. Sladen, as chief of medicine . Sladen had once operated on Clara Ford, and the two couples were good friends. Sladen was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and had remained on its medical staff until 1913, so Sladen and McClure had been acquaintances. In 1916, McClure was invited to become chief of surgery at Henry Ford Hospital. Dr. James E. Mead of the Highland Park Ford factory was to head the hospital dietary unit, where he would teach people how to eat properly. (Ford's statement was, "People consume three times too much food.") So under a board of trustees consisting of Henry and Clara Ford and Edsel and Eleanor Ford, the three men—Liebold, Sladen, and McClure—initially controlled Henry Ford Hospital. Liebold had other important assignments for Ford and was soon replaced by Dr. J. N. E. Brown as superintendent of the hospital. Sladen and McClure were both highly regarded by Ford. McClure was somewhat Ford's favorite as a friend. Perhaps McClure more closely represented an old-fashioned country doctor in his mannerisms. For years, McClure had a standing luncheon appointment with Ford. The opening of Henry Ford Hospital took place in October 1915, but it was hardly an occasion to be celebrated. The first occupants of the hospital were around one hundred derelicts, alcoholics, and drug addicts . Emergency cots, bedding, clothing, and food were hastily supplied . Detroit's city lodging houses and missions had been overtaxed. And Ford realized he was considerably responsible for the problem. He had offered such high factory wages that people were induced to come from far and wide to obtain employment. There was insufficient work for all, and many of these people were not capable of employment. This problem belonged to Ford as well as the city of Detroit. The hospital supplied medical treatment for about...