Hartford on the Brain

William Beecher Scoville was a descendent of Harriet Beecher Stowe.  He was born in Philadelphia in 1905 to Samuel and Catherine (Trumbull) Scoville. His mother was a descendant of Thomas Gallaudet.  He attended Loomis School, received his undergraduate degree at Yale University and his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania.  He established the first neurosurgery department at Hartford Hospital in 1939. His first wife was Emily Learned Scoville and they had three children that they raised on North Steele Road, Barrett, Alison, and Peter. In 1941 he developed the first neurosurgery residency program in Connecticut.  His students referred to him as “Wild Bill.”  ‘Bill drove fast, lived hard and operated where angels feared to tread,” said Dr. David Crombie, former chief of surgery at Hartford Hospital who met Scoville in the early 1960s as an intern at the hospital and became friends with his son.  See this post about Henry Molaison for a description of the surgery that Dr. Scoville performed.  Scoville’s wife had schizophrenia and this may have played a role in his desire to find surgical options for treating mental illnesses.  In the book written by his grandson, Luke Dittrick, Dittrick speculates that Dr. Scoville may have actually performed surgery on his wife, Emily Learned Scoville.  In addition to the surgery on Mr. Molaison, Dr. Scoville is known for a coiled aneurysm clip that he invented.  His second marriage was to Helene Deniau Scoville, with whom he had two children Sophie and William. Dr. Scoville’s brother was Rev. Gordon Scoville, the founding pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Hartford. Dr. Scoville had a life-long interest in cars and was known for driving his red Jaguar or motorcycle on Steele Road and tinkering with cars in his spare time.  He was an early proponent for motorcycle helmets but never wore one himself.  Scoville was killed in 1984, at the age of 78, when he backed up his car on the highway to get to an exit he had missed.