KENNETH ROSE McALPIN

1882–1964

Dr. McAlpin was born on February 22, 1882, and died at his home, Kenrose Farm, West Berne, New York, on February 9, 1964. A native of New York, he was the last survivor of the five sons of Gen. Edwin A. McAlpin, once a power in the city’s Republican politics. Following graduation from Princeton in 1905, he received an M.A. degree there a year later, and in 1910 an M.D. from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. In 1913 he attended the Royal University of Munich. His internship was served at St. Luke’s Hospital and, in his early career, he was also with the Vanderbilt Clinic and Riverside Hospital. He was a specialist in internal medicine on the Columbia faculty. 1914–40, devoting most of his time to teaching and research at Presbyterian Hospital. He was primarily a consultant to other doctors rather than a practitioner, and did much writing on diseases of the heart and blood. After retirement from Columbia he was for eight years physician to Williams College and then consultant in pathology to Henry W. Putnam Hospital in Bennington, Vermont.

In 1913 he enlisted in Squadron A, New York National Guard, and later was with the medical corps of the Connecticut National Guard and the “Yale Batteries” of the Connecticut Field Artillery. Shortly before our entry into World War I he joined a naval aviation unit in Florida and in June, 1917, was commissioned a lieutenant (j.g.) in the Naval Reserve Medical Corps. After promotion to senior grade, he served as senior surgeon at the Naval Air Station at Killingholme, England.

A Fellow of the American College of Physicians, he was also a member of the N. Y. Academy of Medicine, the Harvey Society and the Authors’ League. One of his hobbies was fiction writing. His clubs were the University, Princeton, Coffee House and N. Y. Anglers. He also belonged to the St. Andrews Society. He joined the American Alpine Club in 1923, his qualification being based on several seasons in various districts of the Alps, as well as minor climbs in the Canadian Rockies, 1919–20, during the course of packtrain trips on the Saskatchewan, Stifileur and Clearwater rivers.

His first wife died in 1933. He is survived by his widow and three daughters. Dr. McAlpin was an exceptionally friendly and congenial man and although prevented by distance from attending many of the formal meetings, maintained keen interest in our activities and paid several visits to the Club House in recent years.

J. Monroe Thorington