Celebrating the History of The College of Nursing with the Seventh Annual Cecil Striker Society Lecture

Dr. Cecil Striker

Cecil Striker
This photo serves as a link to the article “Dr. Cecil Striker,
An Essential Founder of the ADA.”

By: Nathan Hood

On Thursday, April 14th, the Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions is excited to present its seventh annual Cecil Striker Society Lecture! This year, faculty and students celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the College of Nursing’s Bachelor Degree – which was implemented in the early 1916 in tandem with the creation of the School of Nursing and Health of the Cincinnati General Hospital. This baccalaureate program was, according to the Winkler Center’s records, the first of its kind in the United States and a product of the ‘melding’ between Cincinnati’s pre-existing nursing program and that of the University. This “merging” of affiliations between the nursing education program, the hospital, and the University was only the second instance of its kind in the country. Indeed, the event was revolutionary in more ways than one…

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Dr. Cecil Striker, An Essential Founder of the ADA

By: Nathan Hood

Dr. Cecil Striker

Dr. Cecil Striker, after the International Diabetes Clinic (Indiana University). This photo serves as a link to the finding aid for the Winkler Center’s collection on Dr. Cecil Striker.

Dr. Cecil Striker’s intense professional passion for Diabetes research began during his one-year residency, which had itself began in 1923 at the recently finished Cincinnati General Hospital. The first full-time Professor of Endocrinology at the Medical College, Dr. Roger Sylvester Morris,  had assigned Striker the task of testing a fairly new medication received from the Eli Lilly Company (Indianapolis) – a “drug” named insulin! Insulin and its medical application had only just been discovered about a year earlier.

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Magnifying the Past: The “Alsfelder” Faculty Caricatures

By Nathan Hood

Dr. Cecil Striker

Cecil Striker, M.D. This photograph serves as a link to the finding aid for the Winkler Center’s collection on Dr. Cecil Striker.

Dr. Cecil Striker earned his Bachelor of Science degree in 1919 and then his Doctor of Medicine in 1921 – both from the University of Cincinnati. He began an internship at the Cincinnati General Hospital in 1921, eventually becoming a resident in 1922. He also completed a residency at the Jewish Hospital and was Chief Resident there from 1923 to 1924. He joined the Jewish Hospital medical staff in 1925 and served as President of Staff from 1955 to 1956.

Dr. Striker’s extensive involvement with research on diabetes and insulin perhaps dominates the general perception of his career as a medical professional. However, Dr. Striker was also awfully enthusiastic about the history of medicine.

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