Orville T. Bailey
(1909-1998)

Orville T. Bailey was born on May 28, 1909, in Jewett, New
York, located in the upper Catskills, at a resort run by his mother,
a school teacher. His father was a sheriff. An only child, he started
first grade at age four in a rural one-room schoolhouse. After grad-
uating from a small village high school, he entered Syracuse Uni-
versity, where he earned Phi Beta Kappa honors. He received his
medical degree in 1932 from Albany Medical College, graduating
at the top of his class. His residency at the Harvard University hos-
pitals was followed by three years of study as a member of the
Harvard Society of Fellows and by a year at Cambridge Univer-
sity in England as a Guggenheim Fellow.
As an associate and assistant professor at Harvard Medical
School from 1946 to 1951, Dr. Bailey helped to develop neu-
ropathology as a medical subspecialty. Accepting an offer from
Indiana University in 1951, he set up a laboratory at the medical
school devoted solely to neuropathology. In 1959 he was brought
to the University of Illinois Medical School by Percival Bailey (no
relation) and Eric Oldberg, neurosurgeons, who were also mem-
bers of the Chicago Literary Club. Dr. Bailey was a member of the
staff of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Cook
County Hospital, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Throughout his career, he trained many doctors, lectured and
consulted throughout the United States and abroad, conducted
critical research in the field of neurology, and published more
than 140 articles. He was the recipient of numerous awards from
major medical institutions and organizations.
Dr. Bailey was a member of the Chicago Literary Club from
1961 until his death on September 21, 1998. He served as chair-
man of the Committee on Officers and Members from 1970 to
1972 and as president in 1975-76. He was a member of the Cen-
tennial Committee and also served as a member of the Anniver-
sary Committee for this, the Club's one-hundred-twenty-fifth,
season. He presented ten papers, two of which were published, in-
cluding his presidential address. Migration and Nemesis.

Read to the Club: October 5, 1998