1902
1911

Walter Wyman was born on August 17, 1848, in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He graduated from the St. Louis Medical College in 1873. Dr. Wyman joined the U.S. Marine Hospital Service in 1876, as assistant surgeon. In 1902, the Marine Hospital Service was renamed the U.S. Public Health and Marine Hospital Service. That same year, Dr. Wyman s title changed from supervising surgeon general to surgeon general. Under his direction, the Marine Hospital Service was assigned responsibility for medical inspection of arriving immigrants. The largest immigration depot was Ellis Island in New York Harbor, where thousands of arrivals were inspected on busy days. The quarantine functions of the service were extended outside the continental United States to include Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Panama Canal, and the Philippine Islands. Surgeon General Wyman had a leading role in the creation of the International Sanitary Bureau (the forerunner of the Pan American Health Organization) in 1902. He was the first of three U.S. surgeons general to serve as chairman of the Bureau. He continued to serve both as surgeon general and as chairman of the Bureau until his death on November 21, 1911.