Roswell Park: A Memoir [excerpt]

     In 1901 the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo attracted universal attention to the city. Dr. Park was made medical director of the Exposition, of its sanitation, its hospitals, and its medical staff. The character of the work done again showed his ability. On that fateful day when the beloved McKinley was stricken at the Temple of Music, the instant demand was for Dr. Park, and dismay was felt when it became known that it would require hours before he could reach the President. In the need of immediate operation, Dr. Mann was called upon and performed the work with accustomed skill. Upon his return, Dr. Park was associated and to the last, with the assistance of Mynter, General Rixey, McBurney, Janeway and others, did all in human power to avert the catastrophe which the autopsy later proved to be inevitable. To Dr. Park the disappointment was almost overwhelming, one from which he suffered keenly while life remained to him. The tone of the hundreds of communications which he received during that trying week is illustrated in the telegram received from the late Dr. Musser of Philadelphia, which said simply, “We are all so glad you are on hand.”
     An abstract from the memorial volume of Selected Papers, Surgical and Scientific, is here introduced, partly because it illustrates the character of the lamented President, partly because it gives an insight to the deeper sentiment of Roswell Park:

     To return to the patient— He bore his illness and such pain as he suffered with beautiful, unflinching and Christian fortitude, and no more tractable or agreeable patient was ever in charge of his physicians. No harsh word or complaint against his assassin was ever heard to pass his lips. As the days went by, the peculiarity of his Christian character became ever more apparent, and was particularly noticeable at the last, up to the very moment of his lapsing into un- [107][108] consciousness. Up to this time I had hardly ever believed that a man could be a good Christian and a good politician. His many public acts showed him to be the latter, while the evidence of his real Christian spirit was most impressive during his last days. His treatment of Mrs. McKinley during the many trying experiences which he had with her fortified a gentleness in his manly character, while the few remarks or expressions which escaped from him during his last hours stamped him as essentially a Christian in the highest and most lovable degree.