William A. Pearson, Ph.D. (1879-1959)

Recto

Name/Title

William A. Pearson, Ph.D. (1879-1959)

Entry/Object ID

200.5

Made/Created

Artist

Maurice Melarsky

Date made

1944

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Overall Dimensions

Height

48 in

Width

44-1/2 in

Dimension Notes

Framed

Interpretative Labels

Label Type

Exhibition Label

Label

Dr. Pearson received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1902. He was a commercial research chemist for several years, and then became Professor and Chairman of Chemistry at Hahnemann in 1909, a position he held for thirty-nine years. He was Dean for most of that time as well, from 1914 to 1943. While supporting homeopathic education, Pearson led Hahnemann through its transition period to “scientific medicine” and significantly increased enrollment in his early years as Dean. He was responsible for the first piece of the New College Building, the Klahr wing, built in 1938 and still part of the Center City campus today. Dean Pearson oversaw life at Hahnemann through both world wars, which included the admission of women in 1941, shortly before the start of World War II. In 1948, as a sequel to Thomas Bradford’s history of Hahnemann, Dr. Pearson published a series of articles chronicling Hahnemann’s second fifty years, 1898-1948.