American Medical Biographies/Park, John Gray
Park, John Gray (1838–1905)
John Gray Park, alienist of Worcester, Massachusetts, was born in Groton, Massachusetts, January 3, 1838, the son of John G. and Maria Thayer Park. He graduated at Harvard University with the degree of A. B. in 1858. While pursuing the study of medicine at the Harvard Medical School in 1861 he became an interne at the Massachusetts General Hospital. In February, 1862, he was appointed an acting assistant surgeon in the U. S. Navy and served as such until November, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. He resumed his medical studies and received the degree of M. D. in 1866, soon afterwards opening an office in Worcester, Mass. In 1871, he was appointed superintendent of the Worcester City Hospital, then just opened. In October, 1872, he married Elizabeth B., daughter of Hon. A. F. Lawrence of Groton, and in the same month received an appointment as assistant superintendent of the Worcester Insane Hospital, a position he filled until 1877, when he was made superintendent of this institution. He served in this capacity until his retirement in 1890. He spent the summer of 1881 in Europe and devoted special attention to English methods of caring for the insane.
He perfected the superb institution over which he had been placed, and was ever a sagacious and prudent administrator. He was an excellent organizer, and a good man of business, and under his management the Worcester Lunatic Hospital enjoyed a deserved prosperity. After the failure of his health in 1890, he resigned from the hospital, and removed to his former home at Groton, Massachusetts, where he continued to reside until his death, although several winters were passed in California.
In 1894 he was appointed by the Governor one of the commissioners to build the Medfield (Massachusetts) Insane Hospital, and later was chairman of the board of trustees, a position he held during the remainder of his life.
His health gradually failed and he finally entered the Worcester City Hospital for treatment, where he died of cirrhosis of the liver, August 29, 1905. One son, Lawrence Park, an architect of Boston, living in Groton, survived him, together with three grandchildren.