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Home : Quarterly Archives : Volume 10 |
Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society |
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Source: April, 1958 Volume 10 Number 1, Pages 16–21 Thomas Gerald Aiken, M.D. : January 17, 1884-December 22, 1956 Thomas Gerald Aiken was born in Berwyn on January 17, 1884, the son of Dr. James Aiken and Clara Alexander Aiken. His early education was in the Easttown schools. As a boy he grew too fast, was always very thin and never very strong, He had quite a bit of trouble with his eyes, and through both high school and college his mother did a great deal of reading for him. During his high school years he was out one year because of ill health. Both he and his mother gave praise to Professor Alexander Clark, Principal of the Easttown High School, for helping him get through the school in 1900. There were six members in the class: Bessie Hunter who later taught in the Easttown schools; Bessie Seasholtz, now Mrs. Frank Longaker; Mary Quimby, now Mrs. Daniel B. Shumway; George Bankard, James K. Heilner, and Tom Aiken. His schoolmates speak of his quietness and wit in his schooldays. Caroline Hayman, now Mrs. Ridgeway, says that everything he did in those days seemed full of fun. Mrs. Shumway, at that time Mary Quimby, who later taught in the Tredyffrin-Easttown High School, relates some of the incidents of their high school days. When Tom returned, after being out of classes for some time, he was permitted to come late each morning, much to the envy of his classmates. Professor Clark taught everything from science to foreign languages. He permitted the students to study two by two, if they asked permission. Since Tom sat in front of Mary, his hand went up each morning after his arrival, requesting permission to speak to Mary Quimby. Mrs. Shumway remembers that they figured out Xenophons marches, and originals in geometry. She says that neither Xenophon nor Euclid repressed Tom's wit and humor. Tom was loyal and helpful to the High School Alumni Association. Busy as he was by that time with his medical courses, he came out to Berwyn to help the committee to arrange for a yearly meeting. Mrs. Shumway writes "Those high school days revealed in Tom the same qualities of intellect and of character and personality that made him the skilled and beloved Dr. Aiken whose memory all Berwyn, and places far beyond Berwyn, cherish."
Thomas G. Aiken, MD Miss Alberta M. Johnson, who taught in the Easttown schools and was assistant to Professor Clark in the High School, speaks of the happy days in Berwyn at that time. She remembers the group of boys, John Taylor, Alfred Ritner, Arthur Lobb, Ed. Kromer, John Campbell and Tom Aiken. Miss Johnson later taught in Atlantic City, where she became Principal of the Girls' High School. One of his classmates, James Heilner, told Mrs. Van Tries " Tom was always quiet and never got into trouble." Dr. Tom loved the out-of-doors, was an exceptionally good skater, and got a great deal of pleasure out of a canoe that he and Arthur owned together and kept on the Schuylkill at Valley Forge. He liked tennis best of all. He played golf, but said he never liked it as well as tennis. He took little time off to play golf; some seasons he would play only three or four times. Once he said " I wish I could play often enough to see how good I really could play." Because of his health he was not able to go out for athletics in high school or college. He did try for the rowing crew at the University of Pennsylvania, and was disappointed for weeks and weeks because he was turned down on account of his heart. His sister tells us that his thinness was not because he did not eat. " One night," she remembers, "just as we were finishing supper, Fred Aiken and Charles Quimby came in, and when they saw Tom finishing they said 'Tom, you were invited to Martha's to dinner with us." He got up, went upstairs and dressed, and went with them and ate another dinner." He got a great deal of pleasure out of playing the piano, and played very well. No matter how busy or trying the day or how late, he always sat down playing the piano for a half or three-quarters of an hour for his mother, before going to bed. Dr. Aiken finished the two-year Pre-Med course at the University of Pennsylvania in 1905 and graduated from the University Medical School in the year 1907. He spent his internship years in. the Chester County Hospital in West Chester, Pa., 1907 - 1908. He then came to Berwyn to practice with his father, Dr. James Aiken. Dr. Aiken's graduate training consisted in being assistant to Dr. James Babbitt in the ear, nose and throat Clinic at the Lankenau hospital and as assistant to. Dr. George M. Coates in the ear, nose and throat Clinic at the Pennsylvania Hospital. He also took a special course at the Graduate Hospital under Dr. Tucker and Dr. Atkins. He was the second person in Berwyn to own an automobile - a Ford roadster. During the years 1918-1919 he served as a First Lieut., U.S. Army, being assigned to the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of the Medical Corps at Camp Hancock in Augusta, Georgia. On January 25, 1919, he married Sarah Borgner Adams of Overbrook, Pa., who survives him. Mrs. Aiken now makes her home in northern New Jersey to be near her daughter, Mrs. Joseph Olhausen. He became a member of the American Board of Otolaryngology, and Chief of the Deportment of Otolaryngology at the Chester County Hospital. He founded the Department of Bronchoscopy as well. He was connected with the Pennsylvania Epileptic Hospital and was a Courtesy Staff Member of the Bryn Mawr Hospital. He also served on the Board of Managers of the Chester County Hospital after October 1944. Like his father, Dr. Tom was always much interested in the local educational problems, and served on the Board of the Tredyffrin-Easttown schools for some 33 years. Few people realize how many hours the men on the School Boards give - their meetings are hours long.
Drugstore He was sincerely interested that the schools be the best possible, he wanted them to prepare the boys and girls for college, and to be well enough prepared that they would be able to stay in after they got in. As a physician he was primarily interested in the health of the young people who were his patients, but he also was interested in their schooling, how they were getting along and what they were planning to do. He would have long talks with them about their future and their preparation for it. In the new Devon Elementary School built by the citizens of the Easttown School District is placed a Memorial Plaque. This plaque commemorates the service of ninety-five years to the youth of Easttown School District, by three men:
Joseph W. Sharp, Jr. 1911-1946 Dr. Aiken was a member of the Trinity Presbyterian Church of Berwyn, and also member of the Berwyn Fire Co; he served as President for a number of years. It was while he was the President that the present Fire House was built. He held membership in the St. David's Golf Club, the Philadelphia Country Club, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Chester County Main Line, and Montgomery County Medical Societies. He was a Mason, and belonged to the Paoli, Berwyn, and Malvern Rotary Club. Dr. Aiken died in the Chester County Hospital, December 22, 1956. Services were held in the Trinity Presbyterian Church on December 24, with burial in the Great Valley Presbyterian Cemetery. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Thomas G. Aiken; his stepdaughter, Mrs. Joseph H. Olhausen; his sister, Mrs. William P. Van Tries; a nephew, Mr. Thomas Aiken Van Tries, living in Pittsburgh; two nieces, Mrs. John W. Ewan whose home is in Glenside; and Mrs. Fred Scott, Jr., now of Asbury Park, N.J. The words of Dr. Henry Pleasants, Jr., as given in the Daily Local News, are quoted: "The passing of Thomas G. Aiken, M.D., leaves a gap in the ranks of physicians of Chester County which will be difficult if not impossible to fill. No man of any field of endeavor was more completely the personification of Rudyard Kipling's ideal man portrayed in the lines of the poem "If"- who could walk with kings nor lose the common touch. "Following in the footsteps of his revered father, Dr. James Aiken, in the general practice of medicine in Berwyn and the surrounding countryside, 'Dr. Tom' endeared himself to rich and poor, master and servant, by giving freely: and generously, at any hour of the day or night, that which was within the scope of his skill and experience, coupled with that priceless element of personal interest which many times gives to the patient the final grain of confidence that tips the scale in the direction of recovery, when life or death hang in the balance.
Thomas G. Aiken, residence "It would have been very natural for Thomas Aiken to have turned his back on the trials and tribulations of general practice in those days, when the average fee was one dollar. He had devoted every spare minute of his time for several years in post-graduate study of the use of the bronchoscope, under the master Chevalier Jackson. He had become an expert, as a specialist in that field there was every possibility that he might also become a great teacher. Certainly the door of opportunity for professional fame and great wealth stood wide open." "Tom Aiken could not forget the people he loved. He refused to desert his old patients. Instead he brought back to his beloved Chester County his newly acquired skill, thereby saving many lives that might otherwise have been sacrificed, for an obstruction of the air passages calls for instant action. "Such was the man who has passed from among us. We shall always remember him who placed honor before fame and service before wealth." |
