Truby, Albert E. (Albert Ernest), 1871-1954

Albert E. Truby (1871-1954) was born in Otto, New York. He attended Cornell University before earning his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1897. When the Spanish American War began, he joined U.S. Army Medical Corps as assistant surgeon in 1898. Although not a member of the Yellow Fever Board, Truby assisted Walter Reed in his quest for the cause of yellow fever at the Columbia Barracks in Cuba. From 1903 to 1916, Truby was stationed in San Francisco, Cuba, the Philippines and Governor's Island, N.Y. as a surgeon and hospital organizer. In 1916 he was sent to Ancon Hospital in the Canal Zone where he rose to become Chief Health Officer of the Panama Canal. While there he worked to insure the area's safety from various tropical diseases. Recalled to the U.S. by the Surgeon General of the Army in 1918, Truby inspected army camps and hospitals to monitor health conditions. After the war he became Chief Surgeon of the Air Service, concerned with sanitation and medical work at the army's airfields. As Commander of the Army Medical Center, Brigadier General Truby retired from the army in 1935.