BIO: Benjamin Franklin ROYER, M.D., Sc. D., Welsh Run, Franklin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Denise Phillips

Copyright 2007.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
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Medical Men of Franklin County, 1750-1925 by Ambrose Watts Thrush, M.D.;
Chambersburg, Pa.; Medical Society of Franklin County, Page 375-376
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BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ROYER, M. D., Sc. D.

  B. F. Royer, a son of John and Elizabeth (McClannahan) Royer, was born 
December 13, 1870, on a farm near Middleburg, Antrim Township.  His elementary 
education was in the district schools, followed by a course at the Cumberland 
Valley State Normal School, Shippensburg, Pa.  In 1890 he began teaching in the 
rural schools of Montgomery Township and two years later, after graduation from 
the Teachers' Course of the Northern Illinois Normal School at Dixon, Ill., he 
taught a six months term (1892-93) near LeRoy, Ill.

  In 1893 he entered Mercersburg College and in 1895 was graduated from this 
institution.  For a part of the time while here he served as an instructor in 
the school.  In 1895 he entered Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and was 
graduated M. D. with the Class of 1899.  He received honorable mention in 
gynecology and was Gold Metal man in obstetrics.

  Dr. Royer served as Interne in Jefferson Hospital and then spent four months 
in Canada before locating in Philadelphia for the practice of medicine.  He at 
once became associated with his Alma Mater as instructor in anatomy and 
obstetrics and later was chief resident physician of Jefferson Hospital for 
eighteen months.  In 1903 Dr. Royer received the appointment of chief resident 
physician of the Philadelphia Hospital for Contagious Diseases.  He continued in 
this capacity for four and one-half years, serving under three different 
directors of the Department of Public Health and Charities.  To Dr. Royer is 
given credit for planning the present hospital for Contagious Diseases of 
Philadelphia.

  In 1908 Dr. Royer was appointed Associate Chief Medical Inspector for 
Pennsylvania by Dr. Samuel G. Dixon, then Commissioner of Health.  While holding 
this position he was for several months in charge of the Mont Alto Sanatorium.  
In 1910 Dr. Royer was promoted to be Chief Medical Inspector and served in this 
capacity until the death of Dr. Dixon in 1918, when he was appointed Acting 
Commissioner of Health by Gov. Brumbaugh and so served for the remaining eleven 
months of the Governor's term of office.  In appreciation of his Public Health 
activities in Pennsylvania, Ursinus College, in 1919, conferred upon Dr. Royer 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D. Sc.)

  In October, 1919, Dr. Royer was appointed Chief Executive officer of the 
Massachusetts-Halifax Health Commission and took up temporary residence in 
Halifax, Nova Scotia, and remained there for four and one-half years.  During 
this time, for eighteen months, he delivered a course of lectures on medical 
jurisprudence in Dalhousie University and also organized and for three years 
directed a course in Public Health Nursing in this University.

  In 1925 Dr. Royer accepted the position of Medical Director for the National 
Society for the Prevention of Blindness with headquarters in New York City and 
is now serving in this capacity.

  Dr. Royer was commissioned 1st Lieutenant, Medical Reserve Corps, U. S. Army 
in 1911 and was made a Captain in 1917.  He served as Chairman of the Harrisburg 
Board for the Examination of Medical, Dental, Veterinary and Sanitary Officers, 
entering the various branches of the Army Service from Central Pennsylvania, 
from 1917 to the close of hostilities in 1918.

  Dr. Royer is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health, having been 
elected in 1904 while in England.  He is a Fellow of the American Public Health 
Association, of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, of the Philadelphia 
County Medical Society, the State Society and the American Medical Association, 
and Honorary member of the Halifax Medical Society.  He holds membership in the 
University Club and the Medical Club of Philadelphia and the Army and Navy Club 
of Washington, D. C.  Dr. Royer is a Mason and a member of the Order of Mystic 
Shrine.

  His writings and publications are many and have been largely along the lines 
of clinical medicine as related to quarantinable diseases and along preventive 
medicine and Public Health lines.

  Dr. Royer married July 19, 1923, Jessie Leona Ross of Tunkhannock, Pa., the 
ceremony being held at the American Consulate General in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

  Dr. Royer maintains a legal residence in Philadelphia.