Karl F. Meyer
George Whipple as director in 1922 and his reputation soon equaled that of his eminent predecessor. Trained as a veterinarian, Meyer was a gifted investigator and under his direction the Hooper's research moved into the epidemiology of infectious disease and large-scale studies of animal infections in man. Given its location at Parnassus, the Hooper's relationship was "closely correlated" with the Medical School and researchers were given free access to university hospital wards. The Hooper Foundation also made research fellowships available to a handful of medical students who desired careers in research medicine.
Full-time research was a highly unusual career choice for UC medical students of the interwar years, for it was the clinical work at San Francisco that became the mainstay of the school's reputation during this time. Once the 220-bed UC Hospital was up and running, clinical instruction was divided into four main departments: Medicine, Surgery, OB/GYN, and Pediatrics, with full-time professors occupying the latter two chairs. Additional clinical training was available in 100 UC-controlled teaching beds at the county hospital, 70 beds at the Children's Hospital, and training opportunities at the Laguna Honda Home, Mt. Zion Hospital, and Letterman Hospital in the Presidio. The medical school also supported special tuberculosis clinics at the County Hospital and an endowed Cancer Ward at Parnassus. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s internship and residency positions were steadily increasing at the UC and the County Hospital, and a growing privately endowed scholarship and fellowship fund provided assistance to needy students. The UC Hospital was assisted by a social service department that provided nurses and social workers devoted to infant welfare, and a course for social service workers was offered at Parnassus under the auspices of the UCB Department of Social Economics. The medical curriculum was supported by an Anatomical-Pathological Museum of teaching and demonstration specimens and a library of journals, books and monographs in French, English and German.
