Temple University School of Medicine - Skull Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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Dedication WITH DEEP APPRECIATION OF THE TRAITS OF CHARACTER WHICH HAVE ENABLED HIM TO BE THE PHILOSOPHER IN INSPIR-INC US TO EMULATE SEMELWEISS AND HOLMES; THE SCIENTIST IN HIS PURSUIT OF UNSOLVED PROBLEMS; AND THE ARTIST IN HIS DEFT HANDLING OF INFANTS AND INSTRUMENTS, WE DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO JESSE O. ARNOLD, M.D. CLASS OF 1935. 8

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Jesse O. Arnold, M D. IT has always been an indisputable fact that the great majority of men who rise to prominence in their chosen fields do so out of their own genuine worthiness and personal merit — unassisted by any previous exalted position or family prominence. Such indeed was the case of Jesse O. Arnold. Born in Fayette County, Pa., on December 28, 1868, he spent the early years of his life among the picturesque hills of Western Pennsylvania. The widely known beauty of the country in which he spent his boyhood made a lasting impression on him—to be given expression years later in a book of charming Verse and Prose Sketches which holds a treasured place in many libraries. An intense industriousness has pervaded his entire life. Attending first the local public schools, he in due time enrolled at Mt. Union College, Ohio. Later, deciding to follow the teaching profession, he entered the Southwestern Pennsylvania State Normal School from which he was graduated in 1890. During the summer vacations of all these years in college we find him teaching in the local summer schools to earn tuition fees for the following year. After his graduation he accepted a position as teacher in the public schools at Connellsville, Pa. He was later made principal of that institution and was re-elected for two successive school terms, declining to accept the third term, due to his desire for a medical career. The intention to become a doctor, the roots of which lay hidden deep in his early boyhood, and which kept cropping up throughout his early life finally won out and after six years of teaching he decided to come to Philadelphia to enter medical school. Conferring with local doctors, he was advised to look over the three leading schools before deciding. So in the early fall of 1893 we find young Jesse Arnold, the prospective medical student, coming to Philadelphia a day before the opening of the schools to decide which one he was to attend. This picture offers such a striking contrast to conditions as they are now, that Dr. Arnold tells with great amusement how he made his choice a day before they opened, visiting Jefferson, the University of Pennsylvania, and the old “Medico Chf Finally deciding upon Jefferson, he enrolled the next day and launched himself on his medical career. During the years he spent at Jefferson he taught in a summer Normal School to earn tuition money as he had done throughout his academic college career. That he was to be outstanding among men in his profession was apparent at this early date because in 1896 upon his graduation we find young Dr. Arnold the recipient of the coveted Wilson prize in medicine, and an appointment as Intern at Jefferson Hospital. In those days internships were not compulsory, and to be asked to serve as an intern in the old Jefferson Hospital was an honor indeed. In 1897 we find Dr. Arnold marrying and settling down to the practice of Medicine in Philadelphia. For the following seven years he was affiliated with the Jefferson Hospital in the departments of Neurology and Surgery. During the first two years of this period he also established a reputation as an anesthetist of unusual skill and competence. Although Dr. Arnold has never admitted it. certainly it is easy to believe that it was during these seven years in Neurology and Surgery at the very beginning of his professional career that the foundation was laid upon which later, after many years in Obstetrics, he, in collaboration with the Neuro-surgeon, Dr. Temple Fay, worked 10