The 1940s

The founders pass the leadership torch, with George Crile Sr., MD, succeeded as President of Cleveland Clinic by his brother-in-law, industrialist Henry Sherman.

Cleveland Clinic opens a physical therapy school to train Navy personnel — the first such program in Ohio.

Cleveland Clinic’s Naval Reserve Unit — which includes Dr. Crile’s son, George “Barney” Crile Jr., MD — establishes Mobile Hospital No. 4 in the South Pacific during World War II.

Attorney Edward Daoust, son-in-law of co-founder Frank Bunts, MD, is elected President of Cleveland Clinic. Known as “The Fifth Founder,” Daoust had drawn up Cleveland Clinic’s founding documents.

Seven additional floors are constructed atop the Clinic Building’s south wing. In the 1940s, new patient registrations exceed 31,500 annually, nearly tripling the number of patients served a decade earlier.

A new wing connects the hospital to the research building.

Co-founder William Lower, MD (seated at right), directs half of his salary annually to sponsor research and provide hospital beds for indigent patients.

After Daoust dies in a plane crash, Trustee John Sherwin is appointed President of Cleveland Clinic.

Cleveland Clinic Director of Research Irvine Page, MD, and colleagues Maurice Rapport, PhD, and Arda Green, MD (pictured), isolate serotonin, a neurotransmitter that plays a role in a variety of functions, from appetite to mood to sleep habits.

Children’s ward opens.