James Hawthorne Beck is the great-grandson of Dr. James Hawthorne who founded the Insane Hospital, the first mental hospital in Oregon, where Dr. Simeon Edward Josephi (1849-1935) worked to put himself through school. James C. Hawthorne (1819-1881) was one of the first neurologists on the Pacific Coast. In 1862, he and his associate, Dr. A. M. Loryea opened the first mental hospital in Oregon. Josephi was the protégé of James C. Hawthorne and the first dean of the University of Oregon Medical School, a prominent Portland physician and civic leader. Dr. Josephi was the medical leader of the profession in Oregon for more than 50 years and lived in Portland for sixty-eight years. He was born in New York City and there received his general education. In 1867 he came to Portland to work as a bookkeeper in the Oregon Hospital for the Insane. After working eight years in the business of the institution he decided to study medicine. He entered the Toland Medical College in San Francisco, in 1875 and graduated in 1877. He then returned to Portland to become an assistant physician in the insane hospital, which was owned wholly by Dr. Hawthorne. Josephi concentrated his practice on nervous and mental diseases. When the Willamette University Medical Department moved to Portland in 1878, he became a member of the faculty. When Hawthorne died in 1881, he took charge of the Hospital for the Insane until its closure in 1883. He then branched out into general practice and became the professor of obstetrics at the school. In 1884 he helped to organize the Portland Medical Society that later became the Multnomah County Medical Society, and the Portland Academy of Medicine in 1906, serving as president in both societies. He served two terms as state senator, and was a member of the State Board of Pardons, served on the Portland Water Commission and was treasurer of Good Samaritan Hospital for thirty-six years. In 1885 he was appointed superintendent of the Oregon Insane Asylum in Salem but the next year resigned to return to Portland. His was to play an important role in the formation of the University of Oregon Medical Department. He became its first dean and professor of nervous and mental diseases. Dr. Josephi retired after twenty-five years as dean emeritus in 1912.
Dr. Edward J. Durham died at age 66. He was a professor of chemistry and director of the Nichols Laboratory, New York University and former Portland resident. He received a Bachelor's Degree from Reed College in 1924 and a master’s degree from Rice University in 1928. He then graduated from Rice with his doctorate in 1930. He was a chemist with Crown Willamette Paper Co. in West Linn Oregon and was on the faculty at Rice University. Durham was recipient of the New York chapter honor scroll award for his outstanding work in chemistry as a fellow of the American Institute of Chemists. He was a member of the American chemical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Chemists’ Club of New York, Phi Lambda Upsilon and Sigma Xi fraternities.
From the guide to the James Hamilton Beck Collection, 1899-1990, (Oregon Health & Science University Historical Collections & Archives)
