California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


GEORGE P. PURLENKY, M. D.� The son of a California pioneer 
who was attracted to the west by the undeveloped resources of the state and 
the opportunities offered to men of humble circumstances for the earning of 
a livelihood with the further possibility of accumulating a competency, Dr. 
Purlenky has been a lifelong resident of Northern California and is a native 
of San Francisco, born in that city August 25, 1880. The best educational 
advantages afforded by the state were brought within his reach by his own 
determined efforts furthered by family encouragement. After he was gradu- 
ated from the Lowell high school in San Francisco he matriculated in the 
University of California, and after two years of creditable record in the 
pharmaceutical department was crowned by his graduation in 1897, at the 
age of seventeen years, with the degree of Ph. G. Already he had decided 
upon his future course. In consummation of such plans he entered the medi- 
cal department of the State University, where he took the full course of 
lectures, receiving the degree of M. D. in 1901, at the age of twenty-one. 
Valuable experience came to him later in the capacity of interne and house 
physician and surgeon in the City and County hospital at San Francisco, 
where he continued for sixteen months of useful professional service. Up 
to the great fire of April, 1906, he served as city physician and health officer 
in San Francisco, but the results of the memorable catastrophe were so 
serious that he sought a new location. 

An opportunity to take charge of the health department of the Union 
Lumber Company and to act as superintendent of the company hospital at 
Fort Bragg led Dr. Purlenky to this city shortly after the San Francisco fire, 
and ever since his arrival he has superintended the lumber concern's hospital, 
where three graduate nurses are in attendance and every equipment is pro- 
vided for the skilled supervision of all cases requiring physical or surgical 
treatment. The Doctor and his wife, who was Miss Alma Hink, a native of 
Woodland, this state, have become prominent in the society of Fort Bragg 
and are honored guests in those circles where superior mental endowments 
receive due appreciation. Besides being identified with the California State 
Medical Association the Doctor has numerous fraternal connections, including 
membership in Fort Bragg Lodge No. 361, F. & A. M.; Mendocino Chapter, 
R. A. M. ; the Eagles and the Moose, the Improved Order of Red Men and 
the Native Sons of the Golden West, for all of which he is physician.