Lynch, Robert Clyde, M. D.

Submitted by Mike Miller

Lynch, Robert Clyde, M. D., of New Orleans, was born at Carson City, Nev., in 1880, the son of William Mercer, and Minerva (Maitland) Lynch. Dr. Lynch's father was born at Connersville, Ind., April 23, 1855, son of Isaac and Margaret (Ulen) Lynch. Isaac, a native of Georgetown, O., (1811) was the son of John Lynch, who spent his life in Ohio, where Isaac was reared and became a teacher, self-educated. He had for a pupil, in Georgetown, Ulysses S. Grant, who afterwards was general-in-chief of the United States army during the Civil war, and after the war, president of the United States. After his marriage in Ohio with the daughter of a Methodist Episcopal minister, Isaac Lynch moved to Indiana, and engaged in business in the town of Dunkirk, where, in 1870, he was remembered by his former pupil, then president of the United States, who appointed him to a position in the United States comptroller's office, at Washington, D. C., and he was thus employed until 2 years before his death. William Mercer Lynch received his early education in private schools and in the high school of Hamilton, O., graduating in 1879. He continued his higher studies in Washington City, and at Wesleyan university, Delaware, O.; taking a special course in chemistry, physics and mineralogy. In April, 1875, he entered the service of the United States government at the mint in Carson City, and in 1884 was appointed assistant assayer in the mint, New Orleans. He studied medicine at Tulane university, graduating in 1896. In June, 1899, was promoted to be assayer in the mint at New Orleans. He is affilated with the Order of Knights of Pythias. In 1879, he married Miss Minerva Maitland, a native of Muncie, Ind. They had 1 child, the subject of this sketch, who came to New Orleans with his parents when 4 years of age, and was educated in the public schools, graduating from the Boys' high school in 1898. The same year he entered the medical department of Tulane university, and graduated in 1902. During his term at Tulane he served 2 years as interne of the charity hospital, having won that position in a competitive examination. After spending 2 years and 8 months in Natchitoches, La., where he established the Natchitoches sanitarium, Dr. Lynch returned to New Orleans, and took a post-graduate course in the study of eye, ear, nose and throat diseases; then went abroad and for 7 months was a student in London and in Vienna, returning to New Orleans and beginning the practice of medicine as a specialist. At the eye, ear, nose and throat hospital he was clinical assistant, and after the death of Dr. Gordon King, was given full charge of the hospital. Since May, 1910, he has been associated with the eminent physician, Dr. A. W. de Roaldes, founder of the eye, ear, nose and throat hospital. Oct., 1910, he was appointed acting professor of oto-laryngology at Tulane, and just 1 year after, was head of that department, a position he still holds. Dr. Lynch is a member of the American Laryngological, Otological, Rinological societies; the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Oto-Laryngology; Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; the American Medical association, and the Louisiana State and Orleans Parish Medical societies. In 1906, Dr. Lynch married Amanda Genin of New Orleans, and they have 2 children, Mercer Genin and Robert Clyde, Jr.

Louisiana: Comprising Sketches of Parishes, Towns, Events, Institutions, and Persons, Arranged in Cyclopedic Form (volume 3), pp. 266-267. Edited by Alcée Fortier, Lit.D. Published in 1914, by Century Historical Association.