Bernard Fantus

Bernard Fantus (September 1, 1874 – April 14, 1940) was a Hungarian Jewish-American physician. He established the first hospital blood bank in the United States in 1937 at Cook County Hospital, Chicago while he served there as director of the pharmacology and therapeutics department.

Biography

Bernard Fantus was born to David and Ida (Gentilli) Fantus in Budapest, Hungary. As a child, Fantus was educated at Real-Gymnasium in Vienna, Austria. From a young age, his parents supported his ambition to be a physician. In 1889, at the age of fifteen, he and his parents immigrated to the United States. In Detroit, Michigan, Fantus was an apprentice for Mr. Leushner at Paul Leuchner's Drug store, who began training him in pharmacy. By 1902 the family relocated to Chicago, Illinois.

Fantus received his Doctor of Medicine in 1899 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (Chicago).He furthered his education by doing post-graduate work at the University of Strasbourg in 1906 and the University of Berlin in 1909. Fantus also received a Master of Science from the University of Michigan in 1917, where he had done research in Pharmacology with Professor Cushny during the summer of 1901.

Fantus married Emily Senn, a nurse who he met at Cook County Hospital, on September 1, 1907. He had a daughter named Ruth.

Daughter Ruth Fantus aka Valeri Gendron (December 14, 1913 – March 21, 1989): Adopted

After suffering a heart attack the year prior, Fantus died on April 14, 1940, at the age of sixty-five. Fantus was buried at Forest Home Cemetery (Chicago).