Bliss, Doctor Willard, 1825-1889

Doctor Willard Bliss (b. August 18, 1825, Brutus, New York–d. February 21, 1889, Washington, D.C.) was an American physician. Bliss studied at Cleveland Medical College. During the Civil War, Bliss was a surgeon with the Third Michigan Infantry and later became superintendent at Washington D.C.'s Armory Square Hospital; he continued to practice in the city after the war had ended.

Bliss was expelled from the District of Columbia Medical Society for his support of homeopathy and his opposition to the society's exclusion of black members. After President James Garfield was shot in July 1881, Bliss examined the President and became Garfield's self-appointed doctor. Bliss invited Alexander Graham Bell to test his metal detector on the President, hoping that it would locate the bullet. After Garfield's death, Bliss submitted a claim for $25,000 for services to the President. He was offered $6,500 instead, an offer that he refused.