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elcome to the Sanders Family Association's "Famous & Notable Sanders" section on Sanders - Saunders kinfolk who have achieved prominence in the field of education. This section is devoted to college teachers, professors, deans, researchers, college presidents and other officials in higher education.If you have information on a Sanders - Saunders or descendant who has been involved in education, please let us know details.
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Bacon Saunders was born 5 Jan 1855 in Bowling Green, Ky., a son of John Smith Saunders, a physician, and Sarah Jane Claypool. He was a pioneer Texas surgeon. His interest in medicine came from his father, a physician who first practiced medicine in Kentucky before moving to Dallas in 1857 and to Bonham, Tx. in 1869. Bacon graduated from Carlton College at Bonham in 1873. For the next two years he taught school in Bonham and studied medicine with his father. In 1875 he returned to Kentucky and studied at the University of Louisville Medical School, graduating in 1877 at the top of a class of 190. He returned to Bonham and for the next 16 years practiced medicine with his father. He specialized in surgery and in 1879 performed what many consider the first recorded operation for acute appendicitis in Texas and perhaps, the South. In 1877 Bacon married Ida Caldwell; they had a daughter and a son. In 1893, after his father died, Bacon moved his practice to Fort Worth and formed a partnership with Dr. W. A. Adams and later with Dr. F. D. Thompson. In 1906 his son joined him as a partner. In Fort Worth, Bacon concentrated efforts on improving surgical techniques and sharing his skill and experience with colleagues and students. In 1894 he became one of the founders of the medical school of Fort Worth University (now Texas Christian University); he served as dean of the school from 1908 to 1918.
In 1918 the medical school was absorbed by Baylor University College of Medicine. Bacon was awarded an honorary LL.D. by Baylor University in 1920. He served the university as Professor of Surgery, theory and practice of surgery, and clinical surgery. His private practice at Fort Worth included serving as surgeon in charge of St. Joseph's Infirmary (now St. Joseph Hospital) and as chief surgeon of the Fort Worth and Denver City Railway (for twenty-five years) and the Wichita Valley Railroad; he was also division surgeon of five other railroads: Texas and Pacific, International-Great Northern, St. Louis Southwestern, Trinity and Brazos Valley, and Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroads.
Bacon's skill as a surgeon and his contribution to the development of modern surgery resulted in his election as a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, president of the Texas Surgical Society, president of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society, president of Texas State Medical Association (later Texas Medical Association), president of the North Texas Medical Association (which he helped to found), and vice president of the International Surgeons' Association. He also established a reputation as a businessman. He was president of the Commonwealth Bonding and Casualty Insurance Company of Fort Worth and director of the American National Bank of Fort Worth, the Farmers' and Mechanics' National Bank of Fort Worth and the International Fire Insurance Company of Fort Worth. He built the Flatiron Building in Fort Worth in 1907, at the time the tallest building in north Texas. He also was an elder of the First Christian Church of Fort Worth, chairman of the board of trustees of Brite College of the Bible, and trustee and member of the executive board of Texas Christian University. He continued to practice medicine and teach until his seventieth year. In 1925, after a ten-month illness, he traveled to Colorado Springs, Colorado to recuperate but died there on July 15. He was buried in Fort Worth.
Donald Day was born 11 May 1899 at Millseat, Hays County, Tx., son of Lillie Saunders and Edward Manning Day, both teachers. He graduated from high school and attended Southwest Texas State Normal College, San Marcos. During World War I, he served in the US Army. He received his bachelor's degree in 1918 from Southwest Texas and in 1924, a masters degree from the Universityu of Texas.
From 1925 to 1927, Donald taught economics at the University of South Dakota. He received a Ph.D. doctorate degree in English from the Univ. of Chicago in 1940. He edited the Southwest Review at Southern Methodist Univ. in Dallas from 1943-1945 and was a staff writer and roving editor for Readers Digest and a regional editor for Southwest and West. He was a profilic writer. He wrote a number of books and contributed to others, including Backwoods to Border, (1942); Big Country Texas (1947), The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949 edited by him), Franklin D. Roosevelt's Own Story (1951), Will Rogers on How We Elect Our Presidents (1952, selected and edited by him), Woodrow Wilson's Own Story (1952 selected and edited by him), The Autobiography of Sam Houston (1954 edited by him and H. H.Ullom).
He was married to Nina Mae Starnes and they had a daughter. Donald died 22 Jul 1991 at Westport, Ct.
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