Dr. Howard N. Kingsford '98m
Medical Director Emeritus Dies at Dick's House
DR. HOWARD N. KINGSFORD '98m, former Medical Director of the College and Emeritus Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology at the Dartmouth Medical School, known to generations of students as a teacher and physician, died February 9 at Dick's House, at the age of 78.
As Medical Director for 22 years, Dr. Kingsford had the responsibility of keeping watch over the physical well-being of undergraduates. During his lifetime he saw the realization of what he considered Dartmouth's greatest boon—the gift of Dick's House and the inauguration of the present student health service. In charge of isolating all students with contagious diseases, Dr. Kingsford's was a 24-hour-a-day responsibility. On many a winter evening, summoned by a janitor or undergraduate, he had to take out his horse and carriage, in later years his car, to make a surprise visit to a dormitory, and coax or command a suspiciously feverish student to accompany him to the "Pest House." It is a tribute to Dr. Kingsford that there were no serious epidemics at Dartmouth during his tenure, at a period in which other colleges suffered severe crises because of typhoid, scarlet fever and diptheria outbreaks.
In addition to his work as quarantine officer, it was Dr. Kingsford's duty to give medical excuses for absences from class. His astuteness in weeding out the true from the false, not unmixed with charity, made him a valuable friend to students as well as a loyal defender of the faculty.
Busy though his daily schedule was at the Gymnasium, Dr. Kingsford, as Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology at the Medical School, also qualified as a fulltime faculty member. Graduating from the Dartmouth Medical School in 1898, he was first instructor in histology, bacteriology, and pathology. In 1901 he was named Professor of Bacteriology and Pathology.
In State medical affairs, Dr. Kingsford served either as chairman or president of the New Hampshire licensing board for physicians for 33 years. He was also pathologist at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital and bacteriologist for the State of New Hampshire. In 1942 he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
Born in Providence, R. I., September 24, 1871, Dr. Kingsford, after receiving his M.D. from Dartmouth, studied medicine abroad. In 1907 he was awarded an honorary Master's degree from the College. His marriage to Mabel P. Carpenter of Boston in 1898 ended with her death in 1922. He was married in 1923 to Harriet W. Horton, who survives him.
A man who received the fullest measure of satisfaction from his work and the friendships he made through it, Dr. Kingsford had another great source of pleasure in his gardening. He was particularly successful with iris, phlox, and gladioli. At one exhibition of the New England Gladiolus Society in Boston, he won several distinctive awards for his entries.
After his forty years of teaching, Dr. Kingsford in his retirement found time for hunting, fishing, gardening and traveling. As president of the Lake Mansfield Trout Club, he enjoyed the companionship of outdoor lovers of all ages. In an editorial which appeared in the Bennington Evening Banner, the writer recalls:
"I was interested reading in Frederick Van de Water's new book that of all the professions the doctors averaged among the most skilled trout fishermen. I was a member of the Lake Mansfield Trout Club ever since 1912 and was a guest there for a year before that, and during my long membership the club has had only two presidents, Dr. H. C. Brigham of Grand Rapids and Dr. Howard N. Kingsford of Hanover. During those many years the profession most common among the membership was that of doctor. It was said in the early days that Dr. Brigham built up the club, and that in later years Dr. Kingsford maintained the club record.
One of Dr. Kingsford's closest friends was his medical colleague and fishing and hunting companion, Dr. John F. Gile 16 of Hanover. In his tribute to his departed friend, Dr. Gile said:
"Dr. Howard N. Kinjsford, known personally to hundreds of Dartmouth graduates as a teacher of pathology and Medical Director of tke College, was a personal friend to my family and to me for something over fifty years. During all that time he was successively teacher and counsellor in the out-of-doors and in the laboratory and, in the last thirty years, companion in the woods and on the streams of this North Country. His commonsense teachings both in the laboratory and woods are well remembered, many of them real gems.
"At times there was an external gruffness but underneath there was a heart of extreme mellowness, capable of going to any degree to aid or do anything in its power for a person or worthy undertaking.
"Nature in all its settings was his forte; hunting dogs—bird or hound—fishing, gardening, wild-life photography, ornithology, even the study and breeding of moths were all in his field of activity. He was a grand hunting and fishing companion who always placed you to get the 'shot' or rowed or paddled to let the other fellow do the actual fishing. No day was too wet, cold or snowy for him to be afield, and when questioned about rabbit hunting on days like this his answer would be, 'lt will be great, we can smell them ourselves.' After a long day in the woods, if there was any daylight left it had to be used to stop and 'hunt out the school house lot' or the 'Arthur place cover,' or if fishing, 'we'll paddle into the cove for a last cast' even though the flies were eating you alive and hunger was tearing your insides out.
"A great practical joker, he always took with grace a joke played on him. A lover of children, he willingly tutored them in the ways of nature with always the wish that they might have the experiences he had had. Not a 'killer' at heart but a conservationist, his adeptness in hunting is shown by the fact that in thick cover he had been known to shoot ten woodcock—the legal limit in those days—in ten shots. Among other activities in his younger days before coming to Hanover he had collected albino specimens for a Rhode Island museum.
"I well remember the day he was riding in the rear seat of the car with a large tank of carbon dioxide with which to do a tissue examination. He was cradling it carefully but lost control of it on a particularly bad bump. The explosion from him, fortunately not from the tank, was sufficient to reduce the speed thereafter.
"The love of his garden and his labors in it were a beautiful sight over the years and more so in the last two or three years as his physical disability caused more and more inactivity, so that during the past fall as he sat on the lawn overlooking the array of color below, one had the definite feeling that he had completed his years of labor and had finally earned the right and pleasure to sit and see the final result of all the years in its full glory.
"One could go on for pages relating the experiences, stories and minor episodes that have occurred over the years. Many would be too personal, 'almost in the fold of the family.'
"I would like to think that his last wish to the lover of the out-of-doors and his many former students might be the closing lines of an unpublished poem by one of his nearest companions long since gone -
Meet me wherever that far country is And bring in your rod, gun and pack."
During the First World War, Dr. Kingford was a captain in the Army Medical Corps. He was a member of the American Association of Pathologists and Bacteriologists, the American Medical Association, the New Hampshire Medical Society and the New Hampshire Surgical Club.
In 1945 he was cited for his outstanding work as a doctor, teacher, and legislator by the New Hampshire Board of Registration in Medicine, which presented the State of New Hampshire with his portrait. To the hundreds of men and women who knew and admired Dr. Kingsford this was an especially fitting tribute: as a man who belonged to and valued the fellowship of Dartmouth; who loved the beauty of the countryside he knew so well; who contributed devoted work to his community and his state—his life represents the New Englander who contributes in the fullest measure to an enduring tradition.
THE LATE "DOC" KINGSFORD, photographed at the Lake Mansfield Trout Club, where for many years he was president and a top fisherman.
