Robert B. Dixon papers

Robert Brewer Dixon (1856-1942), M.D., 1879, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, was a physician and, for 55 years, a medical examiner for the Royal Arcanum, a fraternal life insurance order.

Robert B. Dixon was born on July 20, 1856 to Robert Dixon, a physician who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1846 and practiced medicine in Damariscotta, Maine, and Mary (Coffin) Dixon. He attended Chauncy Hall School, Boston, Massachusetts (now Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School, Waltham, Massachusetts) and later Harvard Medical School (M.D., 1879). He studied medicine in Vienna, Austria; London, England, United Kingdom; and Dublin, Ireland for two years. He then practiced medicine in Boston, working for eight years as Surgeon of the 5th Mass Infantry and for twelve years as Physician to the Boston Dispensary. He joined the Royal Arcanum in 1882 or 1883 (sources differ) as a member of Star Council, No. 214, Boston, which later became part of Allston Council. He was appointed Medical Examiner in 1882, then Supervising Medical Examiner for Massachusetts in 1896, and finally, from 1924 to 1937, Medical Examiner-in-Chief.

Dixon was the author of "Is Craniotomy Upon the Living Foetus Ever Justifiable?" (1885) and "What Is To Be Done: A Handbook for the Nursery, with Useful Hints for Children and Adults" (1884).

Dixon died on December 16, 1942.