Arthur Charles Stokes, MD, 1919

5 January 1919

Born in Canada in 1869, Arthur Charles Stokes, MD, grew up in Rock Rapids, Iowa. He received his medical degree in 1899 after two years of study each at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Chicago and at UNMC. After three years studying medicine abroad, Dr. Stokes returned to UNMC as a faculty member in surgery in 1902. In the 1910s, Dr. Stokes was one of the faculty members tasked with lobbying the Nebraska Legislature for funding to create a new medical campus. Dr. Stokes helped secure the $100,000 needed to purchase the initial campus property at 42nd and Dewey Streets and build the first building (North Laboratory, now Poynter Hall).

As a Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Stokes enlisted as the director of Base Hospital No. 49, overseeing staffing and management of the facility in Allerey, France. In staffing the hospital, Dr. Stokes reviewed applications for those wishing to serve at the base. Initially consisting of 230 medical personnel, under Dr. Stokes’ leadership the hospital base grew to employ nearly 400 nurses, enlisted men, and officers.

After the war, Dr. Stokes continued to teach surgery at UNMC until his resignation in 1923. In 1931 he was elected to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents and served as board president from 1935-1936. Dr. Stokes’ main focus as a regent was to continue to grow the medical center in Omaha, an initiative he supported until his death in 1940.

From the McGoogan Health Sciences Library Special Collections and Archives