William Fletcher Penn

Item

Graduate of Yale School of Medicine, 1897

William Fletcher Penn - Yale School of Medicine class book, 1897, Yale University Library

Biography

William Fletcher Penn was born in 1871 in New Glasgow, Virginia. He attended the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) and the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute (now Virginia State University) before starting medical school at Leonard Medical College in Raleigh, NC. He then moved to Yale School of Medicine in 1894. He earned his MD in 1897.

He was a prominent doctor and surgeon in Atlanta and also served as chief of surgery at the US Veterans’ Hospital in Tuskegee, AL. He was a founding member of the Atlanta NAACP, a founder of the Fair Haven Infirmary, and a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Shortly after graduating from Yale, Penn met his wife Lula Tompkins Wright and they married in 1899. Penn’s stepson, Louis T. Wright, was a surgeon and civil rights activist who went on to chair the NAACP.

William F. Penn died in New York City in 1934.

Full Name

William Fletcher Penn

Yale Affiliation

Graduate of Yale School of Medicine, 1897

Birth Date

1871

Educated At

Yale School of Medicine
Virginia State University
Hampton University

Places Lived

Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Tuskegee, Alabama, United States
New York City, New York, United States

Death Date

1934
Media
William Fletcher Penn - Yale School of Medicine class book, 1897, Yale University LibraryWilliam Fletcher Penn - Yale School of Medicine class book, 1897, Yale University Library

Publications

"The Influence of Carbohydrates Upon Metabolism in Fever." M.D. diss., Yale University, 1897.