Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 5.djvu/229

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\ IRGINIA BIOGRAPHY


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uated in 1S98 with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. \\'hile there he took a prominent part in all student activities and was a mem- ber of the Psi Kappa Psi fraternity. He next entered the medical school of the University of \'irginia, and was graduated in 1901 with the degree of Doctor of ]\Iedicine. He was appointed clinical assistant to Dr. William Osier, with whom he was associated for eighteen months, then accepted the appoint- ment as house surgeon to Christ Hospital, Jersey City, New Jersey, which he filled very successful!}' for one and a half years, resigning it in order to take up private prac- tive in Roanoke. During his extensive stud- ies Dr. Kirk visited the larger number of the leading hospitals in the United States and Canada, and is regarded by his professional brethren as a surgeon of unvisual skill and ability. At the present time he is physician and surgeon to the Roanoke City Hospital. He is a member of the Hampden-Sidney University of Virginia Alumni Association, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Christ Hospital, Roanoke Academy of Medicine. Southwest- ern \'irginia Medical Association, State Medical Association, American Medical As- sociation, Clinical Congress of America, and the Shenandoah and Country clubs of Roa- noke. This fondness for outdoor sports now centers upon golf and tennis, combined with a decided fondness for fishing as a recre- ation. His main hobby, however, is his hos- pital wiirk, to which he is devoted.

Edwin Burrus King. Amid the beautiful surroundings of Fauquier county, Virginia, a half mile north of W'arrenton, long noted for its high altitude, beautiful scenery and invigorating climate, lies a tract of one hun- dred acres of well located land, which con- stitutes the campus and grounds of the "Stuyvesant School," founded in 1913 by Edwin B. King, its headmaster.

Professor King can trace to a distin- guished ancestry on both lines. Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, was the grandfather of Eliza- beth Stuyvesant who married Nicholas Fish, and through this marriage he traces directly to the old colonial go\-ernor whose name he has perpetuated in "Stuyvesant School." Hamilton Fish, a descendant of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Stuyvesant I Fish. and secretary of state in President Grants cabinet, is a relative of Professor King, whose grandmother, Margaret Fish, was a


sister of the secretary. One great-grand- father was Colonel Enoch Ward, who, it is said, equipped a North Carolina company, maintaining it at his private expense during the revolutionary war. He was the grand- father of Sally \\'ard, grandmother of Pro- fessor King. Colonel Nicholas Fish was also a revolutionary officer, and one of the ori- ginal members of the Society of the Cincin- nati. Another ancestor. Colonel John Neil- son, was aide-de-camj) to General Washing- ton and a friend of Lafayette.

Professor King is a son of Dr. Joseph Francis King, and a grandson of Francis I.athrop and Sally (Ward) King, and through his mother a grandson of Dr. John Neilson. of New York City, the Kings and \\'ards being distinguished Southern fami- lies.

Dr. Joseph Francis King was born in Beaufort. North Carolina, in 1832, and died in 1879. He was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York Citv, and spent his life in medical practice. He was brigade surgeon in the Confederate States army, and for a time president of a medical college in Wilmington, North Caro- lina. He was eminent in his profession, a man of deep learning and lofty character. He married Susan Le Roy Neilson, born in New York City in 1841, died in 1909, daugh- ter of Dr. John Neilson. of New York City.

Professor Edwin Burrus King, son of Dr. Joseph Francis and Susan Le Roy (Neilson) King, was born in Wilmington, North Caro- lina, May 24, 1876. After securing his pri- mary and intermediate education he pre- pared for college at St. Mark's School at Southboro. Massachusetts, entering Yale in the fall of 1894. After a university course covering four years he was graduated B. A., class of "98," receiving from Yale in 1908 the degree of M. A. After graduation Professor King began his chosen life work. He returned as master to St. Mark's School, the institution he had left four years earlier tfi enter the university. He remained at St. Mark's for nine years, adding to his edu- cational qualifications the valual)le experi- ence gained in these nine years. From 1907 to 1910 he was senior master at Ridgefield School, Ridgefield, Connecticut, and from 1910 to 1912 headmaster of the Gilman Country School at Baltimore, Maryland. In 1012 he purchased one hundred acres near \\'arrenton. the county seat of Fauquier county, Virginia, thereon erected suitable