Lyman, Katharine

Katharine Russell Ham Lyman was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on August 9, 1894. She graduated from Radcliffe College with an A.B. degree in 1918 . She was employed as a hospital social worker, 1918 to 1926, in the Boston and Pittsburgh areas, as well as assistant director of social work at Strong Memorial Hospital, 1926 to 1931, during which time she met her future husband, Richard S. Lyman (1891-1959), a neuropsychiatrist from Johns Hopkins Hospital. After their wedding in Germany, she traveled with him to Peking, China, where he worked at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital as associate professor of neurology and psychiatry and she worked as volunteer supervisor in the social service department. The Lymans returned to the United Sates in 1937 after the Japanese capture of Peking, eventually to work at Duke University of Medicine, North Carolina, in their respective fields. In 1943, Katharine Lyman worked in Washington D. C. for the Office of Strategic Services preparing lectures on Eastern culture for paratroopers. Katharine Lyman died in West Orange, New Jersey, in January 1994 .