(September 13, 1851-November 22, 1902)
Born in Gloucester County, Virginia
U.S. Army Major, physician
Pathologist, bacteriologist
Namesake for the Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Served in the Spanish-American War (1898)
Led experiments which proved that yellow fever was transmitted by a mosquito bite (1901)

He looked like Stephen Crane.
His family home is a tourist attraction.
He was assigned to an outpost that functioned dually as a prison for Geronimo and his followers.
He is credited with 'curing' yellow fever but his work was largely an extension on the work of other physicians; primarily primarily Carlos Finlay and George Miller Sternberg.
Carlos J. FInlay, for instance, actually discovered the 'yellow fever vector,' and devised how to prevent the disease's spread - twenty years prior to Reed's own theory.
His individual achievements have been eclipsed by the regular news surrounding the medical center bearing his name (particularly whenever a scandal regarding the VA pops up).

He was the youngest of five children.
He always credited Finlay with paving the way for his own breakthroughs.
He died less than a year after his own scientific discovery, shortly after returning from Cuba.
His scientific breakthrough made the completion of the Panama Canal possible.
He originally was dispatched to Cuba to serve on a panel to discuss the Typhoid epidemic plaguing US troops.
He released a comprehensive study showing that contact with fecal matter and food or drink contaminated by flies caused that epidemic.
He demonstrated proof confirming his predecessors' discoveries, proving that yellow fever could not be spread via contact with clothing or bedding.
He received honorary degrees from Harvard and the University of Michigan, in recognition of his work.
He was posthumously honored with a Congressional gold medal for his yellow fever work (which was later renamed the Walter Reed Medal; 1912).
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center has served more than 150,000 active and retired personnel from all branches of the military at any single time.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair

http://aia.li/41274

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