CLIFFORD BROWN WOOD

Young Clifford attended grammar and high school in Chicago and then went to Michigan University at Ann Arbor. In 1883 he graduated from the Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons. This was followed by an internship at Cook County Hospital, Chicago, and for a short time he served on the staff.

Dr. Wood and Dr. Francis Day were boyhood friends who went through school and medical college together. After receiving his M.D., Dr. Day got a position as medical officer aboard one of the ships sailing from San Francisco to Australia. His enthusiastic descriptions of the beauties of Hawaii and his decision to settle in the Islands influenced Dr. Wood to follow suit. Arriving in Honolulu on Christmas Day, 1886, the doctor soon had an appointment as government physician for the Koolaupoko district of Oahu.

On October 19, 1887, at the home of Dr. Day in Honolulu Dr. Wood married Miss Genevieve M. Gilmore of Faribault, Minnesota. Over the strenuous objections of her parents, Miss Gilmore had run away to Chicago to take nurses' training, and it was there that she met Dr. Wood. The doctor and his wife had three children: Wilbert Gilmore, who died in infancy, Dorothy Elaine, and Sanford Ballard Dole Wood.

Resigning from the Koolaupoko position in December, 1887, the doctor became city physician for Honolulu. His duties included serving as physician for the branch hospital in Kakaako, serving as physician at the dispensary in Honolulu, inspecting and vaccinating students in the Honolulu schools, and acting as police department physician. The salary of the city physician was a princely $2400 a year. Quite understandably, he resigned after about four months to devote more time to his private practice. About 1888 he was appointed acting physician for the Lunalilo Home, which cared for indigent Hawaiians. In 1890 Dr. Wood became assistant physician at the Queen's Hospital, which then had a staff of two doctors, and in 1894 when the staff was changed to one attending surgeon and one attending physician, Dr. Wood was named surgeon and continued in this capacity until 1905. In July, 1894 Dr. Frank Miner resigned as a member of the Board of Health and Dr. Wood was chosen to take his place, a position he held for about six and a half years.

From January 14 to 17, 1893, occurred the events which resulted in overthrowing Queen Liliuokalani and the end of the monarchy. Only one bullet was fired and this lodged in the leg of a Hawaiian policeman and was extracted by Dr. Wood. He kept the bullet for many years but eventually gave it to the Archives. During the Provisional government (January, 1893-June, 1894) and the Republic which lasted until June, 1900, Dr. Wood took an active part in working towards annexation. In 1895 he was elected one of four new members to the Council of the Republic. He also served in the Citizens' Guard, being appointed lieutenant and then captain of the 4th. Company and in 1897 he became surgeon for the 2nd. Division. When the Annexation Club was reorganized in 1896, he was elected one of the vice-presidents and was quoted as saying, "The only politics I have is annexation."

In April, 1899, Dr. Wood and Dr. Day formed a partnership with offices on Beretania Street. Late in 1899 the bubonic plague broke out in Honolulu, and it was not until the following April that the epidemic was officially declared at an end. At the outbreak Dr. Wood was a member of the Board of Health, and in January, 1900, was elected president. This put him at the head of efforts to combat the epidemic, and no one had more power or more responsibility. The "Advertiser" for April 20, 1900, ran an article about his work which said in part: "Though Dr. Wood has a stiff temper and an obstinate will, he possesses also a power of sympathy most invaluable to him as a physician and a man, and though many of his actions during the height of the plague may have seemed arbitrary and severe to some, yet will the majority acknowledge his sense of justice in sincerity of motive..." With the plague at an end, Dr. Wood tendered his resignation as president, saying, "I would not serve again for $10,000, but I am willing to be a member of the Board." However, the Board refused to accept his resignation and continued to take no action on his subsequent attempts to resign. Finally, in November he was forced to resign from the Board of Health in order to be freed from the presidency.

From 1898-1899 Dr. Wood was president of the Hawaiian Territorial Medical Association, and again in 1925 he headed the Association, as well as serving in many other capacities. In 1903 Governor Frear appointed Dr. Wood to the three member Board of Medical Examiners of which he became chairman. In 1904 he took an extensive trip through Europe where he visited hospitals and observed new methods. That same year saw the opening of the Kauikeolani Children's Hospital on whose staff he served as attending surgeon for a number of years. Throughout the years, Dr. Wood had an abiding interest in the Queen's Hospital and was always active in its affairs. He was the first doctor to serve on its Board of Directors and was the founder of the Thursday Morning Clinic. He also contributed his time and efforts to such civic organizations as the YMCA, the Civic Federation of Honolulu, and the Red Cross.

Outside of the profession, his greatest interest and loyalty were given to Masonic affairs. He was a member of Honolulu Lodge No. 21, a 32nd. degree Mason, became Illustrious Potentate of the newly formed Aloha Temple in 1901, and the following year he represented Aloha Temple at the Imperial Council of the Mystic Shrine held in San Francisco.

Dr. Wood died on April 26, 1939, in Honolulu at the age of 79.

In addition to his other activities, the doctor was a member of the Hawaiian Society of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, the Pacific Club and the Myrtle Boat Club. One of his earliest hobbies was photography, and he was one of the founders of the Hawaiian Camera Club and served on its first Executive Committee in 1889.

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