Craighill, Margaret (1898–1977)
Craighill, Margaret (1898–1977)
American physician. Born Oct 16, 1898, in Southport, North Carolina; died July 1977 in Southbury, Connecticut; dau. of W.E. Craighill (colonel); University of Wisconsin, BA, 1920, MS, 1921; Johns Hopkins University, MD, 1924.
The 1st woman doctor to serve as a US Army Medical Corps commissioned officer, began career as general surgery assistant at Bellevue Hospital (1928–37); appointed dean of Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania (1940); advocated Sparkman-Johnson Bill (H.R. 1857), which granted female physicians opportunity to serve in US Army Medical Corps after its passage in 1943; joined Women's Army Corps (1943); served as vice chair for Committee on Women Physicians, Procurement and Assignment Service, War Manpower Commission (1941–44); advised on medical issues for 90,000 army women; initiated standard gynecological exams and mental-health screening for women as 1st consultant to Office of the Surgeon General's Women's Health and Welfare Unit (1944); promoted to lieutenant colonel (1945); became chief of service of Menninger Psychiatric Clinic (1949); returned to private practice in Greenwich and New Haven (CT). Awarded Legion of Merit (1945).