Sir William Osler

Sir William Osler was the most famous physician in the English-speaking world at the time of his death in Oxford on 29 December 1919. He was appointed Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford in August of 1904, and had held successive professorships in the leading medical institutions of his day – McGill University (1874-1884), The University of Pennsylvania (1884-1889), and Johns Hopkins University (1889-1905) – ever since his graduation from McGill in 1872. Through an exceptional five-decade career in medicine, William Osler helped to firmly establish the daily practice of modern medicine as a humane-scientific enterprise. He wrote the standard medical textbook of his day, was widely sought after as a medical consultant and educator, and modelled many of the character traits desirable in upcoming medical professionals. Osler was also one of the preeminent physician-historians of his era. He devoted much time to medical biography and literature throughout his career, believing as he did in the powerful educational value of such subjects. For many practitioners and medical students over the past century, William Osler has been an intellectual Godfather of the profession, as his exemplary outline of the medical professional’s role has consistently served as a reliable blueprint for a thoroughly engaging, useful, and fulfilling life as a physician.