Frank A. WILL, M.D.

WILL, BALDWIN, ISRAEL

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/9/2016 at 00:25:22

FRANK A. WILL, M. D. There are manifold points of interest in the personal career and ancestral history of this native son of Iowa. First of all he is on both paternal and maternal sides a scion of honored pioneer families of the Hawkeye state, and in his profession he is well upholding the honors of the name that he bears, his father having long been one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Iowa. Doctor Will has been established in the practice of his profession in the City of Des Moines somewhat more than fifteen years, is a specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of the disorders of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and maintains his offices in the Bankers Trust Building.

Doctor Will was born at Eagle Grove, Wright County, Iowa, August 4, 1886, and is a son of Dr. Frederick Will and Millie (Baldwin) Will, the former of whom was born in Virginia, of Colonial ancestry in the Old Dominion, and the latter of whom was born in Iowa, where she passed her entire life, her birth having here occurred at Iowa Center, Story County, where her father, Frank Baldwin, was a pioneer merchant, he having been born in the State of New York.

Dr. Frederick Will was a son of James St. Clair Will, who was born and reared in Virginia and who became a tailor by trade and vocation, he having come to Iowa in the pioneer days and having here passed the remainder of his life. Dr. Frederick Will was a child at the time of the family removal to Iowa, was here reared to manhood, and here received the advantages of the Iowa State Agricultural College, at Ames, an institution now known as Iowa State College. He represented Iowa as cadet in the United States Military Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and in preparation for his chosen profession he was graduated from the University of Iowa. Doctor Will achieved high standing as a physician and surgeon and as a citizen of prominence and influence. He was engaged in practice first at Jewell Junction, later at Eagle Grove, and finally in the City of Des Moines, where he was Medical Director of the Bankers Life Insurance Company, a position he maintained until his death, March 17, 1917, his wife having preceded him to eternal rest, and Dr. Frank A., immediate subject of this review, being their only child.

Dr. Frederick Will was for many years head physician for the Iowa state organization of the Modern Woodmen of America and served for seventeen years as medical director for the Bankers Life Insurance Company, Des Moines. Under the administration of Governor Cummins he served as surgeon general of Iowa National Guard, he having been a close friend of Governor Cummins and having had management of one of the campaigns of that popular executive. He was influential in the councils of the Republican party in Iowa many years and was a citizen of distinctive loyalty and progressiveness, his interests, aside from those of his profession, having been many and varied. He was a Knight Templar Mason and his Masonic affiliations were extended also to the Mystic Shrine. He and his wife were earnest communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Dr. Frank A. Will acquired in the Iowa public schools his earlier education, thereafter attended school for a time in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the military academy at Racine, Wisconsin, and still later he was a student in the academy maintained in connection with Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. In 1909 he was graduated from the medical department of the University of Iowa, and after thus receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he further fortified himself by valuable clinical experience gained in his year and a half of service as an intern in the Chicago Polyclinic Hospital and by similar service in the Chicago Eye and Ear Infirmary. He thereafter passed a year in advanced post-graduate work in Europe, where he availed himself of the advantages of leading medical schools, hospitals and clinics in Vienna, Berlin and London. Since 1913 he has been established in successful practice in Des Moines as a specialist in the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, though his local practice was interrupted during the period of his World war service. He enlisted in the Medical Corps of the United States Army in April, 1918, and upon going overseas he was given assignment to the British Medical Corps and to duty at King's College Hospital, London, where he continued in service without interruption until some time after the armistice had brought the war to a close. He received the commission of captain in the Medical Corps of the United States Army, and with this rank he was honorably discharged April 24, 1919. Doctor Will is a member of the Des Moines Academy of Medicine, the Polk County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. In his home city he is serving as assistant medical director of the Bankers Life Insurance Company. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, he and his wife are communicants of St. Paul's Church, Protestant Episcopal. and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Kappa Sigma College, fraternity. On the 29th of April, 1919, was solemnized the marriage of Doctor Will and Miss Ethel Israel, who likewise was born and reared in Iowa and whose educational advantages included those of the Des Moines High School, her father, W. C. Israel being engaged in the insurance business in this city. Doctor and Mrs. Will are popular figures in the representative social activities of Iowa's capital city.

A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN
EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL.B., A.M., Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa, Volume IV, THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1931.