Leo eloesser biography

Leo Eloesser (July 29, 1881 – October 4, 1976).
Born in San Francisco, Leo Eloesser (1881-1976) was a pioneering thoracic surgeon and innovator in the provision of rural and wartime health care.
Eloesser, Dr. Leo. b.

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Eloesser, Leo Dr.

Eloesser, Dr. Leo. b. July 29, 1881, San Francisco, California; AMB; Prior military service as a Surgeon with the Austrian Army and US Army during WWI; Doctor; Received Passport# 15935, San Francisco series, on October 22, 1935 which listed his address as San Francisco, California; Sailed November 4, 1937 aboard the Queen Mary; Led the 10th AMB Group; Served with the Republican Medical Services; Organized and served with West Coast AMB; Teruel; At wars end was in charge of Hospital at Vich; Returned to the US on July 4, 1938 aboard the Queen Mary; WWII Armed forces, surgeon; d. October 4, 1976, San Francisco, California.

Source: Scope of Soviet Activity; OAC, Leo Eloesser Collection; (obituary) The Volunteer, December 1976; Harris B. Schumacher Jr., Leo Eloesser MD Eulogy for a Free Spirit, Philosophical Library; L-W Tree Ancestry. Code A

Photograph: Dr. Leo Eloesser in 1947. Photograph Hoover Library.

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Leo Eloesser: The Remarkable Story of a Medical Volunteer in Spain

Among the American medical volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, Dr. Leo Eloesser, a thoracic surgeon affiliated with San Francisco General Hospital, organized a team of west coast doctors and nurses and brought his considerable experience of military medicine to Republican Spain. His extraordinary experience is chronicled in a recent volume written by a team of physicians, The History of the Surgical Service at San Francisco General Hospital (2007), including Dr. William Blaisdell, formerly with the University of California at Davis, from the following text is drawn.

Leo Eloesser at work. Photo: California Medical Association,

Leo Eloesser, a remarkable man with global interests, was born in San Francisco in 1881, of German immigrant parents. The family was wealthy from manufacturing “Can’t Bust ‘Em” Overalls. His father was a pianist, and Eloesser and his three siblings were encouraged to study music. Upon graduation from Urban School in San Francisco, Eloesser was too young to be admitted to the Univer

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Portrait of Dr Leo Eloesser, 1931 - by Frida Kahlo

This painting depicted Dr. Eloesser. Frida's most trusted medical adviser in her life. Frida got to know Dr. Eloesser while she was hospitalized because of persistent pain in her right leg while she was staying in San Francisco. Dr. Eloesser was a well-known doctor and a friend of Diego Rivera. Dr. Eloesser was very interested in the arts and was described as:

...a short man with a birdlike neck who favored starched, inch-high collars, looked like a young man who had suddenly grown old, and played the viola horrifically".

After the treatment, Dr. Eloesser became Frida's close friend and she painted this portrait for him to show her gratitude for the medical advice as well as the friendship. This portrait was painted at Dr. Eloesser's home located at 2152 Leavenworth Street.

In the background of this portrait, Firda painted a ship on the table, which is similar to the ship that Dr. Eloesser owned and sailed in the San Francisco bay. Frida asked Diego Rivera's advice on how to paint a ship since she never painted it bef