Huffman, Ira Erven

Tucson mayor January 2, 1912-January 1915 (i.e., Tucson’s first mayor elected under statehood)
Arizona Medical Board record: Ira E. Huffman MD; license number: 323; licensed date: 01/30/1907; medical school: IOWA COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS & SURGEONS, DES MOINES, Iowa; graduation date: 04/23/1901; area of interest: general practice
Members of the PCMS 1904-1930.
Per Minutes of the Pima County Medical Society, 1904-1954, graduated from Drake University in 1903.
See History of Arizona medicine; collections of Orville Harry Brown, M.D. [AHSL Special Collections WZ 70 AA7 H673].
Quebbeman, Frances E. Medicine in territorial Arizona. Phoenix : Arizona Historical Foundation, 1966, page 349.
See also: McClintock, James H. Arizona, Prehistoric, Aboriginal, Pioneer, Modern; the Nation's Youngest Commonwealth within a Land of Ancient Culture. Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1916 (aka Arizona, the Youngest State), volume 3 (Biographical), pages 754, 755 [portrait], 757: Dr. Ira Erven Huffman, mayor of Tucson and one of the most able and prominent physicians and surgeons in Pima County was born in Ripley County Indiana, March 13, 1870. He acquired his early education in the public schools and received his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Drake University of Des Moines, Iowa being a member of the class of 1901. After graduation he located in Paton Iowa and was made district physician of Greene County. The years between 1902 and 1906 he spent in Beaver, Utah and there he also came into prominence as city physician. In the latter year he removed to Tucson and has since taken an active interest in professional and public life. He has secured a liberal patronage and is a member of the American Medical Association and of the Arizona State and Pima County Medical Societies. In 1913 Dr. Huffman with seven associates, all physicians, purchased the Rogers Hospital and changed the name to the Arizona Hospital. Each physician has his own special work and they are now able to care for fifteen patients at a time. It is the only hospital within the city limits of Tucson and has been incorporated. There is a training school for nurses in connection with the hospital and six nurses are now employed. Dr. Huffman was elected mayor of Tucson in December 1910 and reelected in 1912. During his administration streets have been paved and graded, public parks have been improved and the price of electric light reduced. Dr. Huffman was married September 1, 1910 to Miss Edith Gillmor, a native of Iowa and they have one son, Ira Erven Jr. born December 5, 1912.

Born near Versailles, Indiana, on the 13th day of March, 1870. Graduated from the Medical Department of Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. Took up practice in Utah. Came to Arizona several years before 1913. At the annual convention of the State Medical Association held at Globe, May 21, 1913, Dr. Huffman was elected president of the association for the ensuing year. Source: Who's Who in Arizona. Volume I. 1913 (p. 181-182).

Address per 1935 Arizona State Medical Directory: 545 E. 3rd St., Tucson.

Official List of Officers of Officers' Reserve Corps of the Army of the United States. Volume VI. August 31, 1919, p. 45: Arizona. ... Medical Department. Medical Section. ... Major. ... Huffman, Ira Erven ... 545 Minsty Avenue, Tucson ... Date of birth: Mar. 12, 1870.
Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=d8RBAAAAIAAJ

Per PCMS 50th Anniversary program: “…began his practice in Tucson in 1907, continuing until he retired in 1945. …a captain, and later one of four honorary colonels, of the Arizona National Guard’s Medical Corps… Dr. Huffman led the group of men who obtained Pastime Park as Tucson’s first hospital for tuberculosis veterans of World War I. During that conflict he was a major in the 158th Infantry Medical Corps from 1917 until June of 1919.”

"The War Service of the Medical Profession: A Survey including the Names of Civilian Physicians in Military Service and a Tabulation of Statistics by Counties and States." J Am Med Assoc, Jun 1918; 70: 1648: Pima County...AJO -- Austin Charles Wright; TUCSON -- Joel Ives Butler; I. E. Huffman.
J Am Med Assoc, May 1955; 158: 210: Huffman, Ira E., Tucson, Ariz.; born in Versailles, Ind., in 1870; Drake University Medical Department, Des Moines, Iowa, 1901; past president of the Arizona State Medical Society, Pima County Medical Society, and the Arizona Board of Medical Examiners; formerly a member of the state board of health; for two terms mayor; served overseas during World War I; for many years acting assistant surgeon for the U.S. Public Health Service; formerly medical director of the University of Arizona: associated with St. Mary's Hospital and Sanatorium; died in the Veterans Administration Hospital Feb. 18, aged 84, of arteriosclerosis and diabetes mellitus.