Richard Olding Beard, M.D. (1882) Northwestern University School of Medicine.
Richard Olding Beard was born in Tollington Park, Middlesex, England in 1856 and came to the United States at the age of thirteen in 1869. In 1882 he graduated from the School of Medicine at Northwestern University, after which he came to Minneapolis to practice. Beard was a founding member of the Medical School at the University of Minnesota. He served as Secretary of the Medical School from 1888 to 1903 and again from 1906-1925. Beard was director of the Department of Physiology from 1888 to 1912 and remained as a professor in the program until his retirement in 1925. As a faculty member Beard was an advocate for the creation of the School of Nursing at the university. In addition to his work at the University of Minnesota, Beard served as Assistant Commissioner of Health from 1886 to 1889 and as Executive Secretary of the Health Council of Minneapolis and Hennepin County from 1925 to 1932. He was at one time president of the Minnesota Academy of Medicine and was an honorary member of the National League of Nursing Education. Richard Olding Beard died in 1936.
From the guide to the Richard Olding Beard papers, 1906-1934, (University of Minnesota Libraries. University of Minnesota Archives [uarc])
