1925 Biography - Cyril G. Devron

Cyril Gustave Devron, M. D., formerly the able and popular pathologist at Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium in the City of Baton Rouge, was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on the 30th of November, 1899, and is a son of Dr. John Alexander Devron, who was born in that city on the 20th of April, 1873, and who has continuously maintained his home in his native city during the intervening years. Dr. John A. Devron is a son of Dr. Gustave Devron, who likewise was born in New Orleans, the year of his nativity having been 1832. The original representatives of the Devron family in America came from the vicinity of Rouen, France, and settled in Louisiana shortly after the close of the war of the American Revolution. Dr. Gustave Devron, whose death occurred in New Orleans in the year 1900, received from the historic University of Edinburgh, Scotland, the degrees of both Master of Arts and Doctor of Medicine, and his final studies in his profession while abroad were prosecuted in the City of Paris, France. He devoted virtually his entire active career to the practice of his profession in New Orleans, and was a distinguished physician and surgeon of his native state. In the Civil war period he had charge of the only Confederate hospital that remained open in New Orleans at the time when that city was captured and occupied by the Federal troops under command of Gen. Benjamin F. Butler. Dr. Gustave Devron wedded Catherine Fitzgerald, who survived him and who continued to reside in New Orleans until her death in 1916.

Dr. John Alexander Devron was graduated from the Jesuit College at New Orleans and received therefrom the degree of Bachelor of Arts. The degree of Master of Arts was subsequently conferred upon him by Tulane University, in which he completed a post-graduate course, and he was later graduated in the medical department of the same University. Since thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he has continuously been established in the practice of his profession in New Orleans, where he has a large and representative general Practice. He was graduated in medicine when he was twenty-one years of age, and has been engaged in successful practice nearly thirty years, with high standing both as a physician and surgeon and as a loyal and liberal citizen. In 1912 Doctor Devron organized the Field Hospital of the State of Louisiana. He is a member of the Orleans Parish Medical society, the Louisiana State Medical Society and the Southern Medical Association. He gave nine years of service as major in the Medical Corps of the Louisiana National Guard, and in this capacity was in active service with the troops on the Mexican border at the time of the border troubles of 1914. In the World war period he was instructor in tactics ~d also the French language at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, whence he was eventually transferred, in similar service, to Camp Beauregard, where he was tactician and French instructor with the One Hundred and Fifty-first United States Infantry. He was examined for overseas service, and, much to his regret, physical disability resulted in his being honorably discharged in January, 1918. Doctor Devron is a staunch advocate of the principles of the democratic party, is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Woodmen of the World, and he and his wife are earnest communicants of the Catholic Church.

At New Orleans, on the 21st of December, 1898, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. John A. Devron and Miss Mary Dickmann, who was there born in the year 1883, and of their children Dr. Cyril G., immediate subject of this review, is the elder, the younger of the two children being Leonhard Ernest, who remains at the parental home and who is (l924) a student in the medical department of Tulane University.

In the New Orleans High School Dr. Cyril G. Devron was graduated as a member of the class of 1913, he having completed in three years the prescribed four-years course and having won on his high-school record a scholarship in Tulane University, the academic department of which he entered in September, 1916. He was graduated as a member of the class of 1921, with the degree of Bachelor of Science, after having lost a scholastic year of work at the time of the World war. In the medical department of Tulane University he was graduated in 1923, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he served about one year as house surgeon of St. Francis Sanitarium at Monroe, Louisiana. While in the academic department of the University the Doctor was captain of its basketball team in the year 1917, in which year he was also wrestling and boxing champion of the university athletic department, as was he likewise in 1919. In the latter year he represented Tulane in the championship competitions of the Southern Amateur Athletic Union.

After his service, during 1923, at the sanitarium at Monroe Doctor Devron was transferred to Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium at Baton Rouge, the two institutions being under one corporate control. At the latter sanitarium, one of the important and splendidly equipped health institutions of Louisiana, Doctor Devron was director of the laboratories of clinical medicine, bacteriology and pathology, and here he found a splendid field for effective scientific and professional service. This sanitarium, one of the largest and splendidly equipped in the state, was erected at an approximate cost of $400,00O, and in equipment and service it is the most complete and modern institution of the kind in Louisiana. Doctor Devron severed his connection with Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium in May. 1924, and spent the summer at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, gaining additional knowledge and experience for his life work. In September, 1924, he entered practice at Lakeland, Pointe Coupee Parish.

Doctor Devron is actively identified with the East Baton Rouge Parish Medical Society, the Louisiana State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His political convictions place him loyally in the ranks of the democratic party, he and his wife are communicants of the Catholic Church, and in academic and professional college fraternities his affiliations are with the Delta Sigma Phi, the Kappa Psi and the Alpha Omega Alpha, the last mentioned being a national and honorary medical fraternity.

Doctor Devron was a student at Tulane University at the time when the United States entered the World war, and at the age of seventeen years he volunteered and was assigned to the Students Army Training Corps of the University at Camp Martin. He competed in turn for appointment to the Officers Training Camp at Camp Pike, Arkansas, and Camp Fremont, California, passed both examinations successfully and obtained the appointment to Camp Fremont. He was awaiting transportation to California at the time when the signing of the historic armistice brought the war to a close, and he received his honorable discharge December 10, 1918.

In New Orleans, on the 3d of November, 1923, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Devron and Miss Grace St. Clare Ward, daughter of John J. and Katherine (McVey) Ward, the former of who died December 6, 1923, about one month after his daughter's marriage, Mrs. Ward being still a resident of New Orleans. Mrs. Devron was graduated from one of the high schools of her native city of New Orleans, and in the period of American participation in the World war she gave three years of valued service as secretary to the commandant of the United States Naval Station at New Orleans, she having enlisted as a yeowoman of the third class and having won advancement to the rank of chief yeowoman. Doctor and Mrs. Devron are popular factors in the representative social life of Louisiana's capital city.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 61-62.