Dr. Robert Fields LeMond biography

ROBERT FIELDS LeMOND, M. D., a specialist on the diseases of the eye, earn nose and throat, is successfully engaged in practice in Fort Worth. His ambition to secure an education in his youth and early manhood is typical of his entire life’s progress, for his career has been permeated by a desire for advancement and improvement and he stands as one of the most distinguished representatives of his specialty in the practice in Texas. Born in Springfield, Limestone county, this state, he is a son of C. M. and Mary (Fields) LeMond. His father was a native of North Carolina and belonged to an old Virginia family. Coming to Texas about 1855, he located in Limestone county, whence he afterward removed to Gonzales county, wher ehe lived until 1875, in which year he took up his abode in Van Zandt county. Subsequently he removed to Quanah, in Hardeman county, which was his home for nearly twenty years, and there he passed away in June, 1904, at the age of seventy-eight years, respected by all who knew him. During his active life he was a successful farmer and was a man of the finest character and personal attributes. His wife, who died many years ago, was a native of Mississippi.

Dr. LeMond was reared upon the home farm, and from his earliest boyhood had ambition to secure a superior education. From the time that he entered school he was an earnest and devoted student, applying himself assiduously to the tasks assigned and winning many honors in his alter school life. His primary education was obtained in the schools of Gonzales county and in Van Zandt county and when about eighteen he passed an examination whereby he secured a teacher’s certificate, subsequent to which time he taught school for two years. He then entered upon further study at Cedar Grove College in Kaufman county, where he was graduated with the highest general average that had been made in that school for eleven years and was given a certificate to the effect by the faculty. Returning to Van Zandt county Dr. LeMond received appointment as a member of the board of examiners for the county and again engaged in teaching school for about a year. In the meantime an examination was held at Tyler for the Peabody scholarship, and in the competition were about three hundred applicants form ten counties. There were two scholarships to award and Dr. LeMond, taking the examination, was awarded the first place in the contest. This scholarship gave him admittance and tuition to the University of Tennessee at Nashville, where he was graduated with the degree of master of arts, while later the degree of doctor of law was conferred upon him.

Returning to Van Zandt county, Dr. LeMond resumed the profession of teaching, but regarded this an initial step to other professional labor, devoting his leisure hours to reading medicine under a private preceptor. Subsequently he matriculated in the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville, where he was graduated in 1885. His first practice was in Van Zandt county, and later he practiced at Wolfe City. In 1887 he decided to make a specialty of the diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat, and with this end in view he took up post graduate work at St. Louis and later in New York City, where he pursued the courses in ophthalmology and otology in the Post Graduate Medical College. There he made such an excellent record personally and professionally that he received the complimentary award of an appointment as interne [sic] in the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital. That proved an excellent training for him, adding greatly to his experience, and, returning to Texas, he began practice as a specialist at El Paso.

Dr. LeMond’s ability and success were such that he was recommended by the State Medical Society for the professorship of diseases of the eye in the medical department of the University of Texas at Galveston and went to New York to get some letters of endorsement from his former professors for the purpose of prosecuting his application for the position. While in the east, however, he was offered another position as lecturer on diseases of the eye in Gross Medical College at Denver, Colorado, being especially recommended for the position by Dr. St. John Roosa, president of the faculty of the Post Graduate Medical College. Deciding to accept the latter position Dr. LeMond accordingly located at Denver, where he lived for eleven years with the exception of a short time spent in California. He became professor of diseases of the eye and ear in Gross Medical College, attending ophthalmologist to the Arapahoe County Hospital and the Deaconess Hospital, ophthalmologist to the Herman Strauss Free Clinic and other positions of a similar nature in Denver. In addition to these he enjoyed a most lucrative and successful private practice as a specialist, performing many remarkable cures in diseases of the eye and ear and in the performance of operations along that line that received the commendation of the medical profession throughout the United States. He contributed quite extensively to medical literature on subjects connected with his special branches and in reporting his cases and his investigations. These articles have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Society, the Annals of Ophthalmology and Otology and other publications of the day. Dr. LeMond also delivered the address to the graduating class of the Hospital College of Medicine at Louisville June 20, 1894, and he enjoyed the highest friendship and esteem of the general medical profession in Denver.

About 1898 Dr. LeMond became interested in the movement for municipal reform in Denver, principally in connection with the water works, and allying himself with the Democrat party of that city he made a number of speeches that brought him into such political prominence that he was offered the Democratic nomination for congress, but after some consideration of this he declined the honor. He was, however, a public spirited citizen, interested in all that pertained to the welfare of the municipality and he enjoyed the friendship of the business men of Denver as well as his professional contemporaries.

Dr. LeMond has lost his wife, who bore the maiden name of Miss Alice Tate, but he has one son. He is a Knight Templar and has taken the higher degrees of Masonry and is also connected with the Mystic Shrine. He has also been an active member of various medical societies. In March, 1905, he returned to his native state, locating at Fort Worth, where he was welcomed by the medical profession as a most worthy addition to their number and where he will continued to make his home. He is a very warm-hearted man, a typical southern gentleman and attracts people to him in strong and enduring friendships.

Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 91-92.

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