Harvey James Howard (January 30, 1880 – 1956) was an American ophthalmologist. Howard specialized in aviation medicine and trachoma. He was also a founding member of Arcacia collegiate fraternity.
Howard was born on January 30, 1880 in Churchville, New York.[1] He attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he was a founding member of Arcacia fraternity.[1] He graduated in 1904 with an A.B.[1]
He attended the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a medical degree in 1908.[2] He graduated from Havard University with an A.M. in 1910. He also earned an Oph.D. from the University of Colorado in 1918.[1]
Howard was a resident physician at Bryn Mawr Hospital in 1908 and a resident ophthalmic surgeon at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary from 1909 to 1910.[1] He accepted a position as head of the Ophthalmology Department at the University Medical School, Canton Christian College in China between 1910 and 1915.[2] He received a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship to study ophthalmologic pathology at Harvard University from 1916 to 1918.[1] He was elected to the American Ophthalmological Society in 1917.[2]
During World War I, he invented the Howard-Dolman apparatus for measuring the accuracy of perception of distance for aviators while serving as a captain in the US Army Medical Corps during World War I.[3][1]
Howard returned to China where he served as head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Peking Union Medical College between 1917 and 1927.[2] While there, he organized a teaching program and studied epithelial cells.[2] He was also the ophthalmologist of Puyi, the boy emperor in the Forbidden City, between 1921 and 1925.[2]
He was a fellow at the University of Vienna from 1923 to 1924.[2] He was the founding chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Washington University School of Medicine in 1927.[2] He oversaw the construction of a new building for ophthalmology, developed a resident training program and conducted research on aviation medicine and trachoma of Indians.[2]
Howard was the medical director of the Missouri Commission for the Blind from 1931 to 1948.[2] In 1934, Howard left academia and opened a private practice in St. Louis, Missouri, with offices in the Park Plaza Hotel.[2]
Howard was a colonel in the medical reserve corps during World War II.[1]
Howard was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Association.[1] He was a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, the American Ophthalmological Society, the Florida Medical Association, and the Southern Medical Association.[1]
Howard married Maude Irene Strobel in Philadelphia on June 25, 1910.[2][1] They had three children, Margaret Howard Jackson, James "Jim" Howell Howard, and Martha Howard.[2] After Maude died in 1948, he married Alice Tilson Eastes.[2][1]
In 1926, Howard and his son Jim were kidnapped by Manchurian bandits who demanded a $100,000 ransom ($1,721,053 in today's money).[2] They escaped after ten weeks (77 days) with the help of the Chinese army.[2] Howard wrote of the event in his book Ten Weeks with Chinese Bandits, which was published in seven languages.[2]
Howard was a member of the American Legion and served on the board of the Washington University Branch of the Y.M.C.A.[1] He was a member and president of the St. Louis Kiwanis Club, the St. Louis Writers Guild, and the Society of St. Louis Authors.[1] He was also chairman of the St. Louis Chapter of United China Relief.[1]
Howard died in 1956 in Clearwater, Florida.[2]
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