Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Coffey, M. D., Robert C. 1869 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 27, 2009, 11:02 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     ROBERT C. COFFEY, M. D.  Among the modern institutions of which the 
residents of the Rose city are justly proud is the Portland Surgical Hospital, 
founded by Dr. Robert C. Coffey, an eminent surgeon of international repute. 
Of English and Irish lineage, he is a scion of a family that was established 
in America in 1700. His forbears settled in North Carolina in 1756 and 
afterward intermarried with the Boones. Dr. Coffey was born in North Carolina 
in 1869 and his parents, Patterson V. and Nancy M. (Estes) Coffey, were also 
natives of that state. His father was an agriculturist and in 1888 migrated to 
the west, settling in Idaho. In 1891 he came to Oregon and spent the remainder 
of his life in this state, in which his wife also passed away.

     In the public schools and Globe Academy of North Carolina, Dr. Coffey 
obtained his early education and continued his studies in the University of 
Louisville Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1892. After serving 
as an interne in the Louisville City Hospital, he located in Moscow, Idaho, 
and there followed his profession for five years. While there he served on the 
first state board of medical examiners of Idaho. He also was vice president of 
the Idaho State Medical Society. On the expiration of that period he moved to 
Colfax, Washington, where he spent two years.	While there he served as 
secretary of the Washingtin State Medical Society.  In March, 1900, he came to 
Portland, opening the North Pacific Sanatorium, which he conducted for ten 
years as a general hospital. For four years he was connected with St, 
Vincent's Hospital and in 1915 started the Portland Surgical Hospital in a 
private residence at No. 611 Lovejoy street. Each year additions have been 
made to the building. The grounds include the block hounded by Lovejoy, 
Nineteenth and Marshall streets. This is the largest individual private 
hospital in the country. A high degree of efficiency is maintained in the 
operation of the institution, which utilizes the services of approximately one 
hundred persons, including doctors, nurses and other employes of the Dr. 
Robert C. Coffey Clinic and Hospital. He has devoted much time to research and 
study and has given to the profession over seventy-five papers as well as 
several valuable books on surgery. On this subject he has become widely 
recognized as an authority and is quoted exhaustively, by many authors of 
books on surgery.

     In 1893 Dr. Coffey married Miss Clarissa Ellen Coffee, of North Carolina, 
and three sons were born to them. The eldest, Dr. Jay Russell Coffey, received 
the M. D. degree from the University of Oregon, following this with a 
postgraduate course under Dr. Bloodgood, of Baltimore, Maryland, and for three 
years was associated with the Mayo clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Wilson 
Bryan Coffey is business manager of both clinic and hospital. Robert Mayo 
Coffey is a student in the medical department of the University of Michigan.

     Along social lines Dr. Robert C. Coffey is connected with the University, 
Waverley and Multnomah Clubs. In the organization of the American College of 
Surgeons he took a prominent part and is serving on its board of governors. He 
was made president of the Oregon State Medical Society in 1909, of the Western 
Surgical Association in 1926, and in 1927 was chosen as the executive head of 
the Pacific Coast Surgical Association.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 588-589

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