George Washington Corner FRS

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...

(12 December 1889 – 28 September 1981) was an American physician, embryologist and pioneer of the contraceptive pill. He received an outstanding ten honorary degrees from various universities. He played a critical role in the discovery of

progesterone Progesterone (; P4) is an endogenous steroid and progestogen sex hormone involved in the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and embryogenesis of humans and other species. It belongs to a group of steroid hormones called the progestogens and is the ma ...

. He was described as both a medical historian and a humanist. He was the person responsible for educating a number of persons important in the world of sexual health, including:

William Masters William Howell Masters (December 27, 1915 – February 16, 2001) was an American gynecologist and the senior member of the Masters and Johnson human sexuality research team. Along with his partner Virginia E. Johnson, he pioneered research into ...

Mary Calderone Mary Steichen Calderone (born Mary Rose Steichen; July 1, 1904 – October 24, 1998) was an American physician, author, public speaker, and public health advocate for reproductive rights and sex education. In 1953, Mary Calderone became the firs ...

and

Alan Frank Guttmacher Alan Frank Guttmacher (May 19, 1898 – March 18, 1974) was an American obstetrician/gynecologist. He served as president of Planned Parenthood and vice-president of the American Eugenics Society. Guttmacher founded the American Association of ...

. As such he can be viewed as the grandfather of sexual health and contraception in America. Mary Calderone, in particular, acknowledged a huge debt to Corner in allowing her onto the medical course at Rochester. His name (along with

Willard Myron Allen Willard Myron Allen (November 5, 1904 – August 15, 1993) was an American gynecologist. He was born in 1904 in Farmington, New York, near Rochester, New York. As an undergraduate student at Hobart College (now Hobart and William Smith Colleges) ...

) attaches to two medical terms: the Corner-Allen Test (for progestation) and the Corner-Allen Unit (a unit of progestational activity in rabbits).

Life

He was born in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

in the United States on 12 December 1889 the son of George Washington Corner II, a local merchant, and his wife, Florence Evans. He attended Baltimore Boys Latin School. He then attended

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

graduating in 1909 and obtaining a postgraduate degree in medicine in 1913. He taught as an assistant professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, 1915–19 and returned to his alma mater as assistant professor, 1919-23. In 1923 he was chosen by University President

Benjamin Rush Rhees Benjamin Rush Rhees ( 8 February 1860 – 5 January 1939) was the third president of the University of Rochester, serving from 1900 to 1935. Education Rhees, great-grandson of radical Baptist minister Morgan John Rhys, earned his undergraduate d ...

as the first professor of medicine for the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

, funded by

George Eastman George Eastman (July 12, 1854March 14, 1932) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Kodak, Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream. After a decade of experiments in photography, he ...

and the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...

on a salary of $6000 per year. He took up the role in Rochester in 1924, having spent the intervening period since 1923, working in

Ernest Starling Ernest Henry Starling (17 April 1866 – 2 May 1927) was a British physiologist who contributed many fundamental ideas to this subject. These ideas were important parts of the British contribution to physiology, which at that time led the world. ...

’s laboratory in England. His title here was director of the anatomy department. In 1940 he moved to the Carnegie Embryological Laboratory in Baltimore, where he worked until 1954. He was given the Dwight H. Terry Lectureship for 1943-44 for his book ''Ourselves Unborn''. He served as the 27th president of the

American Association of Anatomists American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

from 1946 to 1948. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 1951 and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of London The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

in 1955. He died at his son’s home in Huntsville, Alabama on 28 September 1981. He was a sufficiently respected citizen for his obituary to appear in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. He is buried in

Tioga Point Cemetery Tioga may refer to: United States communities *Tioga, California, former name of Bennettville, California *Tioga, Colorado * Tioga, Florida * Tioga, Iowa * Tioga, Louisiana * Tioga, Michigan * Tioga, New York, a town in Tioga County *Tioga County, ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

Family

He met Betsy Lyon Copping whilst volunteering at the Grenfell Medical Mission in Battle Harbor, Labrador, and married her in 1915.

Publications

*''Anatomical Texts of the Early Middle Ages'' (1927) *''Anatomy: Clio Medica'' (1930) *''Ourselves Unborn: An Embryologists Essay on Man'' (1943) *''Anatomist at Large'' (1958), his first autobiography * ''George Hoyt Whipple and his friends : the life-story of a Nobel prize pathologist'' (1963) *''A History of the Rockefeller Institute 1901-1953: Origins and Growth'' (1964) *''The Seven Ages of a Medical Scientist'' (autobiography) (published 1982) *''Attaining Manhood'' (aimed at pre-pubescent males) *''Attaining Womanhood'' (aimed at pre-pubescent females)

Other Positions of Note

*Member, United States

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

*Member,

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

*Member,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

*Executive Officer of the

1960-77

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corner, George Washington 1889 births 1981 deaths American embryologists Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellows of the Royal Society Members of the American Philosophical Society