Edward Peirson Richardson papers

Edward Peirson Richardson, Sr. (EPR Sr.), MD, was an abdominal surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and John Homans Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Son of Margaret White Peirson and Maurice Howe Richardson (MHR), he was born on 7 April 1881 in Boston, Massachusetts. Maurice Howe Richardson was a prominent physician with ties to both HMS and MGH. EPR Sr.'s maternal grandfather, Edward Brooks Peirson (1820-1874), was a physician in Salem, Massachusetts. EPR Sr. received the AB from Harvard College in 1902. After a medical education that included sixteen months as a surgical house officer at MGH, he received the MD from HMS in 1906.

Following graduation, EPR Sr. became MHR’s surgical assistant. When MHR died suddenly in 1912, EPR Sr. took over his father’s general practice, which he maintained until 1922, when personal and professional demands required its closure.

During World War I, EPR Sr. served twice. He joined the First Harvard Medical Unit at British General Hospital No. 22, near Etaples, France in 1915, as a temporary honorary major. In July 1918, he was commissioned in the United States Army as a captain. In September of that year, he was promoted to major, and arrived with his unit in France on Armistice Day, 11 November 1918. He returned to the US in 1919.

On 26 May 1917 EPR Sr. married Clara Lee Shattuck, daughter of prominent Boston physician Frederick Cheever Shattuck (1847-1929). They had three children, Edward Peirson Richardson Jr., Elliot Lee Richardson, and George Shattuck Richardson, before Clara died from complications of childbirth on 6 December 1921.

EPR Sr. practiced surgery at MGH. He became Assistant Surgeon to Outpatients in 1911, Surgeon to Outpatients in 1912, Assistant Visiting Surgeon in 1919, Chief of the Third Surgical Service in1922, and Chief of the West Surgical Service in 1925, which became the first full-time surgical teaching unit at MGH. In addition, he was on staff at a number of other local hospitals, most notably at the Robert Breck Brigham Hospital, serving as a surgeon from 1914 to 1918, and as a consulting surgeon from 1921 to 1922.

During the same years, EPR Sr. served on the HMS faculty: he was appointed Assistant Professor of Surgery in 1922, Associate Professor of Surgery in 1925, and John Homans Professor of Surgery in 1927.

EPR Sr. often wrote for professional publications, including the Annals of Surgery,Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Journal of the American Medical Association, and Surgical Gynecology and Obstetrics. Topics reflected the range his of surgical interests, including the abdominal specialties of his father, but his main curiosity lay in thyroid and parathyroid surgery. He co-authored his most extensive published work, Diseases of the Thyroid (1929), with James H. Means.

Richardson held active memberships in many professional societies, including the American College of Surgeons, American Medical Association, American Surgical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, and Society of Clinical Surgery. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, nature, ecology, and travel. He was active in the Harvard Club, Somerset Club, and the Brookline Country Club.

In 1931, a debilitating stroke cut short his professional activities. Although he maintained his status as an honorary member of the MGH staff and as Homans Professor, Emeritus, he never fully recovered.

EPR Sr. died on 26 January 1944, at age 63. Funeral services were held at Mount Auburn Chapel on 29 January 1944.