Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Sr., M.D. (1805-1878)

First Dean, 1837-38, Fifth Dean 1852-56, Seventh Dean 1857-59

M.D., University of Maryland, 1825

Dr. Yandell was born in Hartsville, TN, the son of Wilson Yandell, M.D., and first studied medicine under his father.  He attended the 1822-23 session of the Medical Department of Transylvania University in Lexington, KY.  He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1825.  Dr. Yandell practiced for five years before accepting the Chair of Chemistry in the Medical Department of Transylvania University.  In 1837 he moved to Louisville as the founding Dean of the Louisville Medical Institute.  Dr. Yandell developed and directed construction of the magnificent first medical school building, designed by Gideon Shryock.  He described the organizing problems of the new institute as so complex that his major comfort was to watch the construction of the school, with its classic portico and columns.

Dr. Yandell was a founding editor of the Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery.  He also published in history, biography and education, but more extensively in his main interest of geology and paleontology.  A significant scientific work, Contributions to the Geology of Kentucky, with B.F. Shumard, appeared in 1847.  Several fossils bear his name.  In 1859, Dr. Yandell returned to Tennessee and briefly served in the Confederate Medical Corps.  In 1862, following his deep religious convictions, he entered the Presbyterian Seminary, and later had a congregation at Dancyville, TN.  In 1867 he returned to Louisville.  Two of his six children were physicians, Lunsford Pitts Yandell, Jr. and the more famous David Wendell Yandell, Professor of Clinical Surgery at the University of Louisville and President of the American Medical Association.  Dr. Yandell died of pneumonia after a brief illness.