Major General William C. Gorgas was a U.S. Army physician and Surgeon General from 1914-1918 best known for his work controlling mosquitoes that transmit yellow fever and malaria. As chief sanitary officer for projects in Florida, Havana, and the Panama Canal, Gorgas implemented extensive sanitation programs including draining ponds and swamps and using mosquito netting. These measures were crucial in enabling the construction of the Panama Canal by preventing illness among thousands of workers. Gorgas received international acclaim for his contributions and an honorary knighthood shortly before his death in 1920.

1. (Dr.) Major General William C. Gorgas
William Crawford Gorgas KCMG (October 3, 1854 – July 3, 1920) was a United States Army
physician and 22nd Surgeon General of the U.S. Army (1914–1918). He is best known for his
work in Florida, Havana and at the Panama Canal in abating the transmission of yellow fever
and malaria by controlling the mosquitoes that carry them at a time when there was
considerable skepticism and opposition to such measures.
Born at Toulminville, Alabama, Gorgas was the first of six children of Josiah Gorgas and Amelia
Gayle Gorgas. After studying at The University of the South and Bellevue Hospital Medical
College, Doctor Gorgas was appointed to the US Army Medical Corps in June 1880. Gorgas was
assigned to three posts -- Fort Clark, Fort Duncan, and Fort Brown -- in Texas. While at Fort
Brown (1882–84), he survived yellow fever and met Marie Cook Doughty, whom he married in
1885.In 1898 after the end of the Spanish-American War Gorgas was appointed Chief Sanitary
Officer in Havana, working to eradicate yellow fever and malaria.
Gorgas was made Surgeon General of the Army in 1914, in which position he was able to
capitalize on the momentous work of another Army doctor, Major Walter Reed, who had
himself capitalized on insights of a Cuban doctor, Carlos Finlay, to prove the mosquito
transmission of yellow fever. As such, Gorgas won international fame battling the illness—then
the scourge of tropical and sub-tropical climates—first in Florida, later in Havana, Cuba and
finally at the Panama Canal.
As chief sanitary officer on the canal project, Gorgas implemented far-reaching sanitary
programs including the draining of ponds and swamps, fumigation, mosquito netting, and
public water systems. These measures were instrumental in permitting the construction of the
Panama Canal, as they significantly prevented illness due to yellow fever and malaria (which
had also been shown to be transmitted by mosquitoes in 1898) among the thousands of
workers involved in the building project.
In 1914 Gorgas and George Washington Goethals were awarded the inaugural Public Welfare
Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.He received an honorary knighthood (KCMG)
from King George V at the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in the United Kingdom shortly
before his death there on July 3, 1920.He was given a special funeral in St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Gorgas Memorial Institute of Tropical and Preventive Medicine, Incorporated (GMITP),
which operated the Gorgas Laboratories in Panama, was founded in 1921, and was named after
Dr. Gorgas. With the loss of congressional funding in 1990, the GMITP was closed. The Institute
was moved to the University of Alabama in 1992 and carries on the tradition of research,
service, and training in tropical medicine.
The Gorgas Course in Clinical Tropical Medicine is sponsored by the University of Alabama
School of Medicine in conjunction with Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru.

2. In 1953 William C. Gorgas was inducted in the Alabama Hall of Fame. Amelia Gayle Gorgas
Library and Gorgas' parents' final home, the Gorgas House, located on the campus of The
University of Alabama, are named in honor of the Gorgas family.