Description

An oral history conducted by Susan Resnik, Ph.D. with former San Diego State University distinguished alumnus Earl Nation on May 16th and 17th, 2006. Earl Nation moved to San Diego in 1926. During that same year, he started classes at San Diego State College where he majored in chemistry. He graduated in 1931 and moved to Cleveland, Ohio to begin medical school at the Western Reserve School of Medicine. Upon graduation, Nation moved to Los Angeles and started a year-long rotating internship at the Los Angeles County Hospital. In 1941, Nation went into practice with H.C. Bumpus and Ben D. Massey in Pasadena, specializing in urology. In addition, he also was associate professor of urology at the University of Southern California, but retired in 1955. During Nation's medical career, he served as president of the Huntington Memorial Hospital, the Pasadena Dispensary, the Pasadena Medical Society, the California Urological Society, the Western Section of the American Urological Association (AUA), and the national American Urological Association. In 2002, the AUA awarded Doctor Nation the Ramon Guiteras Award. He was also a charter member of the American Osler Society. Nation retired from his practice in 1990, and remained active in the American Osler Society until his death in 2008. In his oral history, Nation discusses his early childhood in Texas, then San Diego. Of particular interest are Doctor Nation's remembrances of San Diego State College during the late 1920s and early 1930s, including San Diego State's move to its current location, parking issues, the chemistry fraternity, and jaunts to Tijuana for horse races and entertainment. Nation's account of medical school in Cleveland, Ohio during the Depression is insightful as well. The recording also includes his remembrances of the Los Angeles County General Hospital, his contraction of tuberculosis, his medical history scholarship, and his reflections on his urological practice. This oral history was made possible by a grant from the John and Jane Adams Endowment for the Humanities and is part of the University Archives Multimedia Files Collection. Names mentioned during the interview include: Joseph Newton Nation, Louisa Hayes, Joseph Madison Nation, Alma Emily Johnson, William Johnson, Ida Sockwell, Earl Johnson, Joe Nation, Bill Nation, Henrietta Johnson, Laurence M. Klauber, W. D. Work, Victor C. Meyers, Paul Mott, Albert Einstein, Charles Lindbergh, Richard Bing, and Carey Bumpus., San Diego State University, More keywords from transcript are under "Transcription" so they are searchable