My apologies if this individual has already been covered.  I am travelling in Europe and my mail has been a little weird.  That said:

I think a very strong case could be made that the most important person in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from Virginia would be Walter Reed born at Belroi in Gloucester, and the youngest medical graduate at the University up to that time. His role in ending the scourge of Yellow Fever/typhoid, I suspect, affected the lives and well being of more people worldwide than any other Virginian contemporary to him.  For some sense of what it was like prior to Reed read about the epidemics in 1793, 99, and 1802 in Philadelphia, particularly Benjamin Rush's commentary on the '93 pandemic.  In the Spanish American War it killed more America troops than the Spanish by a large percentage.

-- Stephan

Stephan A. Schwartz  *  932 North Oriole Drive  *  Virginia Beach, VA 23451

Tel: (landline)  757.333.7286  (mobile) 757.339.3944*  Personal URL:  http://www.stephanaschwartz.com  *  Schwartzreport:  http://www.schwartzreport.net

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html