FRANCIS JOHN HALFORD

He graduated from the University of Iowa in 1922 and his M.D. degree was received from the University of Pennsylvania in 1926. Later he took postgraduate work in Edinburgh, Munich and London.

Coming to Honolulu in June, 1926, Dr. Halford became house surgeon at Queen's Hospital.

On January 1, 1928, he entered private practice. Six years later he joined Drs. A.V. Molyneux, Nils P. Larsen, R.L. Mansfield and James Judd in forming the Medical Group.

In 1947, because of his health, Dr. Halford turned from a thriving practice in gynecology and surgery to the field of industrial medicine and was in charge of that department at the Medical Group. That same year he went to the Columbia School of Medicine in New York for specialized training in labor and industrial relations and health education. He also visited various industrial plants in the East to study their medical programs.

On August 29, 1929 Dr. Halford married Miss Marjory Atherton, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Cooke Atherton. The couple had two daughters, Mrs. Frederick W. Rohlfing and Mrs. Arthur Morgan Brown III, and two sons, Frank A. and Peter Halford.

Dr. Halford served as medical director of the Kamehameha schools, director of the Honolulu blood bank, chief of the national board of medical examiners for the Territory and on the Honolulu county medical library board.

Dr. Halford had the distinction of being the only civilian to receive two decorations for services rendered at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. One citation came from the secretary of war and the other from the commanding general of the U.S. Army forces in the Pacific. It was Dr. Halford who was responsible for the planning and operation of emergency stations for the treatment of potential shock and burn cases.

The doctor was an authority on the medical missionaries of Hawaii and had a book on this subject in preparation at the time of his death. He also contributed numerous articles to medical publications.

Dr. Halford died October 1, 1953 in San Francisco at the age of 51 while he was en route to attend Mainland medical meetings.

He was a member of the Honolulu County Medical Society (president in 1944), Hawaii Territorial Medical Association, American Medical Association, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, American Association for the Study of Trauma (charter member), Industrial Medical Association, American Public Health Association, American Society for the Study of Sterility, Honolulu Surgical Society and the Pan-Pacific Surgical Association (vice-president).

He also belonged to Alpha Tau Omega, Phi Rho Sigma, the Pacific club, Outrigger club, Central Union church, Shriners, Royal Order of Jesters, Social Science club and the Hawaiian Historical Society. He was a 32nd degree Mason.

In a tribute to Dr. Halford published in the November-December 1953 issue of the "Hawaii Medical Journal" Dr. Nils P. Larsen writes, "He will be greatly missed by the whole community. For no matter what their differences of opinion might have been or their annoyances, people could not help but like his kindly, genial and blithe personality."

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