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William Mabon

Physician

Centurion, 1904–1917

Full Name William Van Vranken Mabon

Born 14 August 1860 in New Durham, New Jersey

Died 9 February 1917 in New York (Manhattan), New York

Proposed by Alexander Lambert and Francis Sedgwick Bangs

Elected 4 June 1904 at age forty-three

Archivist’s Note: Brother of James Brown Mabon

Century Memorial

Our state institutions for the unhappy and deranged sustained great loss from the death of William Mabon. Dr. Mabon gained his medical education at the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, where for many years he held the chair of Psychiatry. His sphere of usefulness was enlarged by his appointment as superintendent of Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, as president of the State Hospital Commission and finally as Superintendent of the Manhattan State Hospital, perhaps the largest institution in the world for the care of the insane. Probably no man ever had under his care so great a number of these sufferers as he; and could they speak they would add their voices to the testimony of his professional brethren and of boards of hospital managers, that his broad and profound knowledge of the needs of these institutions was equalled only by his rare tact and courage and executive ability in meeting them, and his unfailing sympathy for their unfortunate inmates. Naturally, he was often called to advise in private cases and to testify in the courts; and had been the president of the New York Psychiatrical Society.

Henry Osborn Taylor
1918 Century Association Yearbook