Closson, Esther Marjorie

Arizona Medical Board record: Esther M. Closson MD; license date: 10/9/1928; medical school: MED COLL OF PA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; graduation date: 06/13/1923; address: 735 N Avenida Alegre, Tucson. Address per 1935 Arizona State Medical Directory: 4 E. Congress St., Tucson (under name “Marjorie E. Closson”).
See History of Arizona medicine; collections of Orville Harry Brown, M.D. [AHSL Special Collections WZ 70 AA7 H673].
Sloan, Richard E. History of Arizona. Phoenix, Record Pub. Co., 1930, volume 4 (Arizona biography), pages 320, 323.

Excerpt from "Arizona Women in Medicine." Arizona Capitol Times, November 10, 2017: Dr. Esther Closson came to Tucson as a result of her own fight with tuberculosis. She received her medical degree from the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia and went on to study tropical medicine and hygiene at the University of London. Closson’s ambition was to become a medical missionary in Asia. During her first assignment at a missionary hospital for women and children in India, doctors discovered that she had tuberculosis. They collapsed one lung to allow it to rest, and after a year and a half in recuperation, she was able to return to the United States. After spending several months in a New York tuberculosis center, Closson decided to try the dry climate of Tucson. Within a few years her recovery was complete. She opened a practice specializing in obstetrics. Over the next 22 years, she delivered more than 00 babies, more than half at home. In 1950, Closson gave up private practice to work as an administrator for Pima County’s well-baby and prenatal clinic. Four years later she was named director of the Pima County Health Department. [Research courtesy of Jane Eppinga.]

Per PCMS 50th Anniversary program: “The second [woman admitted to the Society] was Dr. Esther M. Closson, 1929, who was appointed director of the Tucson-Pima County Health Department in 1954.”

J Am Med Assoc, Nov 1923; 81: 1547: REPORT OF THE SIXTEENTH EXAMINATION OF THE NATIONAL BOARD OF MEDICAL EXAMINERS. PASSED, PART II. ... Closson, Esther Marjorie, Woman's Medical College. ... 1923 [year of grad.].
J Am Med Assoc, Jun 1955; 158: 673: Dr. Esther M. Closson, Tucson, was recently appointed Pima County Health director, succeeding Dr. Lewis H. Howard, who resigned after 34 years of service.
J Am Med Assoc, Jun 1956; 161: 887: Decline in Tuberculosis Death Rate. -- According to Dr. Esther M. Closson, Tucson, director, Pima County Department of Public Health, the tuberculosis death rate in Arizona declined from 291.2 per 100,000 population in 1931 to 29.5 in 1953. Later figures are not yet available.
JAMA, Mar 1984; 251: 1623: CLOSSON, Esther M., 90, Tucson; Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1923; died Jan 15, 1983.

Master pnID
AMH-PN0639
Src2 PCMSMin
PCMS-Min
History of Arizona medicine; collections of Orville Harry Brown, M.D. [AHSL Special Collections WZ 70 AA7 H673]
volume 1, page(s) 394,395
PCMS pnID
pn0171
OHB Checked
y
Residence(s)
Tucson