James L. and Dorothy Knowles Thomson papers

Dr. James L. Thomson was a nationally-known neurosurgeon. He graduated from the Medical College of the University of Cincinnati in 1934 and taught neurological surgery at the Medical College of Virginia from 1938-1941. He served in World War II as neurosurgeon to the 45th General Hospital in Morocco and Italy. He was one of seven officers in the unit awarded the Bronze Star. After the War, Thomson practiced in Norfolk, Va. He was the first neurosurgeon to practice in the Tidewater area and saw patients at the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth and the Marine Public Health Hospitals in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Newport News, and Suffolk. Thomson was a charter member of the Excelsior Surgical Society, a group of 80 medical officers who met for the first time in 1945 at the Excelsior Hotel, Rome, Italy. He also helped organize the Neurosurgical Society of the Virginias and was its first president. In 1959, Thomson was cited by the President's Committee for the Physically Handicapped for his efforts to employ those with physical handicaps while a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. At the time of his death in 1973, he was Chief of Neurosurgery at Norfolk General and DePaul Hospitals, a diplomat of the American Board of Neurological Surgery, and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. James L. Thomson married Dorothy Mae Knowles on 15 May, 1940. They had two children, Martha and James. Dorothy Mae Knowles grew up in Woodard, North Carolina and graduated from the Medical College of Virginia's nursing program in 1934. From 1937-1940, Knowles was an Instructor and Supervisor of Operating Room Technique at MCV. With her husband, she was a charter member of the Excelsior Surgical Society. In 1995, she established the James L. Thomson, MD and Dorothy Knowles Thomson, RN Fund for the School of Nursing to heighten awareness alternative and complementary therapies.