George Goler Papers

George Washington Goler was born in Brooklyn, New York on August 24, 1864. The son of a ship carpenter, Goler moved to Rochester in 1884 in order to live and study with his uncle, Colonel George Washington Goler. The younger Goler began medical studies in 1889, at the University of Buffalo, earning his degree in 1891. He joined the practice of noted Rochester surgeon Dr. Edward Mott Moore, Sr., a noted reformer and member of Rochester’s Board of Health. Goler showed great talent in surgery, but chose to instead focus on public health, taking a temporary appointment as Temporary Medical Inspector and Chief Assistant to the Health Officer in 1892. Only two years later, in 1894, he was permanently appointed Chief Assistant Health Officer, becoming Health Officer in 1896. Goler held this title for 36 years, retiring in 1932

Goler was a notable public health reformer. With the assistance of some of Rochester’s leading citizens (including George Eastman), he successfully fought for tuberculosis control, venereal disease control, improving labor conditions, and establishing child health programs. Goler provided strong leader in both the smallpox epidemic of 1902 and the Spanish Flu of 1919-1919. As a result of the former, he led the establishment of the new Rochester General Hospital on Waring Road, a project largely carried out during the epidemic itself. Following the latter, he convinced the City to coordinate the construction of another new municipal hospital with the University of Rochester’s plans for a medical school and hospital of its own. He is probably best remembered for extensive work on the infant health, especially by establishing milk stations in 1897 to distribute pure milk to mothers and instruct them in feeding their infants. He also led a fight to strengthen regulations on milk producers and consistently enforce them, coming to a head in 1905 with the requirement that milk be maintained at a temperature below 50 degrees Fahrenheit throughout its transportation to Rochester. His establishment of one of the nation’s first venereal disease clinics, and introduction of iodine in the water supply (1926), are also noteworthy.

Beyond his duties in Rochester, Goler was elected president of the American Association for the Study and Prevention of Infant Mortality in 1910. In World War I, he was appointed to the rank of major and served for a year in the Medical Corps at Cap Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Goler married Lena Dodge, of Detroit, in 1895, and had one daughter. He passed away on September 18, 1940.