William Edward Quine, M.D.

William Edward Quine, M.D., was born on the Isle of Man in 1847 and moved with his family to Chicago when he was six years old. After studying pharmacy and materia medica, he enrolled in the Chicago Medical College and earned his M.D. degree in 1869. The next year he began teaching materia medica at the Chicago Medical College. In 1870, he also established a private practice with Dr. T.D. Fitch. Dr. Quine was also one of the original faculty at the Northwestern University School of Pharmacy.

Soon after the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Chicago opened its doors, Dr. Quine joined the faculty as a Professor of Principles and Practice of Medicine and Clinical Medicine. In approximately 1892, he became the school's president of faculty (a title later changed to "Dean" after the college affiliated with the University of Illinois in 1897). He served as dean until 1913.

Dr. Quine served actively in several medical organizations, becoming president of the Chicago Medical Society in 1874, the Illinois State Board of Health in 1892, the Illinois State Medical Society in 1905, and the first president of the Institute of Medicine in Chicago in 1915

Dr. Quine was a member of the attending staff at Mercy Hospital and Cook County Hospital.

Dr. Quine married Dr. Lettie A. Mason in 1876. Dr. Mason was active in foreign medical missionary work prior to their wedding and was active with the Methodist Church later in her life. The couple had three children, two of whom died in infancy, and the third, Ruth, died at age 6. During her work in China in the 1870's, Dr. Mason contracted pulmonary tuberculosis which she battled until her death in 1903. Dr. Quine endowed a Ruth Quine Deaconess in Normal Illinois in her memory as well as four schools for children and the Lettie Mason Quine Hospital for Women in south central China.

Dr. Quine remained active in the Chicago medical community for his entire life. He died on December 7th, 1922 at the age of 75.