Education

  Brennemann School House

  University of Michigan – Ph.B. 1895

  Northwestern University Meidcal School = M.D. 1900

  St. Luke’s Hospital, Chicago – Internship

  Studied in Europe

Work Experience

  General Practice – 3 years

  Pediatric practice in Chicago

  Teaching iat Northwestern University Medical School

  Attending pediatrician at Cook County Hospital, St. Luke’s Hospital, Wesley Hospital

Major Positions

  Professor and chairman, Dept of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Medical School

  Chief of Staff, Children’s Memorial Hospital: 1921 – 1941

  Professor of Pediatrics, University of Chicago

  Chairman of Pediatrics, University of Southern California Children’s Hospital

Membership

  American Pediatric Society – President

  American Academy of Pediatrics

  Society of Pediatric Research

  British Pediatric Society

His Roots - “Nature via Nurture” (Matt Ridley, 2003)

  Rural – Joseph Brenneman was born to Mennonite parents in 1872. 

  He was in the right place at the right time.

Contributions – Prophetic Vision

  Work Ethic – Focus and Energy, Much to do, Holistic View

  Human side of the hospital – “One of the greatest and busiest surgeons that I ever knew spent just as much time and was just as careful not to cause any unnecessary pain during a dressing on the humblest colored child in the ward as he was with the richest and most influential patient in the most expensive suite in the hospital, and we young interns and nurses never forgot it.” (JAMA, Nov. 1931)

  Science & Common Sense – a Function of Observation and Relationships

  Prophetic Vision  - “A children’s hospital is a sanctuary consecrated to the healing of the sick and dedicated to the training of men and women in the art of medicine.  Its staff should have a keen sympathy and a genuine love of the work and for the human souls who occupy the sick beds.”

1.      Hospital Construction – Outpatient and Inpatient

2.      The Library

3.      Endless & diverse bibliography

4.      Teacher

5.      The Practice of Pediatrics (5 volumes –First edition, 1936)

Views on Behavioral Issues in Medicine

  A team effort to establish an understanding and management strategies

  Not against psychiatry – only against deficient and fraudulent psychiatry

  The need to understand patients well

What makes a visionary

  Devotion to the understanding of people in health and in illness

  An unflagging desire to heal by providing enlightened, loving, early interventional care

  Loving what you do and imbuing work places with deep enlightened caring

  Traveling “the road less traveled”

      Quote from Brennemann’s speech at the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society, April 11, 1932

“It is no longer safe to let a young child, who is normally as outdoor an animal as a collie, play outdoors without constant surveillance…The streets are no longer safe and mothers are apt to be hypercritical about his chosen companions.”

Final Tribute To Brennemann

“So spoke an honest man; the outstanding intuitionist of our age and a prime example of what may lie in store for anyone who dares to follow the beat of a different drum.”  (Obituary of Richard Feynman by Nobel Laureate Julian Schwinger, Feb. 1989)

            “Good-bye Dr. Brennemann. Knowing you, but briefly, helps us to understand ourselves better. 

            Thanks for your devotion and gifts.  Your jumpstart worked.” 

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