Henry Andrew Rasmussen was born
April 21, 1894 in Omaha, Nebraska. Rasmussen was of Danish descent, the son of
Nels and Anne Rasmussen and spent his early hears in the town of Maple,
Nebraska. He graduated from Creighton
medical college in 1915, a catholic Jesuit medical school founded in 1892 in
Omaha, Nebraska. He also attended the Army Medical School in 1918 during his
service in World War I. After the war he joined the U.S. Public Health Service on
June 15, 1921 with his first assignment to Prescott, Arizona. Thereafter he had
assignments to San Francisco’s quarantine station (1923), the Fort Stanton, New
Mexico Marine Hospital Number 9 used for tuberculosis patients (1924-1925), the
Ellis Island quarantine station[i] (1926) and the quarantine station
in Manila, Philippines (1926-1930). He was promoted to Passed Assistant Surgeon
on September, 13, 1926.[ii] On October 29, 1929 he
was ordered to Cebu, Philippine Islands where he stayed for several years
(1929-1932).[iii]
On April 9, 1932 he was ordered back to San Francisco to serve at the marine
hospital and relief station (1932-1934) and on September 1, 1935 sent to
Galveston, Texas quarantine station (1935-1937).[iv] On April 10, 1937 he was
ordered back to San Francisco to serve at the Marine Hospital and Relief
Station[v] and the following year on
August 8, 1938 was ordered to the Medical Center for federal prisoners in
Springfield, Missouri (1938-1944).[vi] By 1943 he had been
promoted to the Senior Surgeon at the Medical Center for Federal prisoners in
Springfield, Missouri.
He was
ordered to Boston, Massachusetts on July 2, 1945 where he stayed until 1957,
the longest tenure of any Public health Service physician at the Boston
quarantine station. During his time in Boston, the quarantine station was located
at the customhouse – not Gallops Island. Nonetheless, he had responsibility for
the quarantine sub-stations stretching from Eastport, Maine to New London,
Connecticut.[vii]
Rasmussen
died at the age of 90 years on February 1, 1985 in Corning New York.
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