Biography
Cannon was born in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin on October 19, 1871.
In his autobiography The Way of an Investigator, Cannon counts himself among the descendents of Jacques de Noyon. His Calvinist family was intellectually active, including readings from James Martineau, John Fiske (philosopher), and James Freeman Clarke. Cannon's curiosity also lead him to Thomas Henry Huxley, John Tyndall, George Henry Lewes, and William Kingdon Clifford. A high school teacher, Mary Jeannette Newson, became his mentor. "Miss May" Newson motivated and helped him take his academic skills to Harvard University.
In 1896, his first year at Harvard, he started working in Bowditch's Lab, and in 1900 he received his medical degree.
After graduation, Cannon was hired by Harvard to instruct in the Department of Physiology. He was a close friend of the physicist G. W. Pierce; they founded the Wicht Club with other young instructors for social and professional purposes. In 1906 Cannon became Higginson Professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School, a position he held until 1942. From 1914 to 1916 he was also President of the American Physiological Society.
He was married to Cornelia James Cannon, a best-selling author. Although not mountaineers, during their honeymoon in Montana the couple were the first, on July 19, 1901, to reach the summit of the unclimbed southwest peak (2657 m or 8716 ft) of Goat Mountain, between Lake McDonald and Logan Pass in what is now Glacier National Park. The peak was subsequently named Mount Cannon by the United States Geological Survey The couple had five children. One son was Dr. Bradford Cannon, a military plastic surgeon and radiation researcher. The daughters are Wilma Cannon Fairbank, Linda Cannon Burgess, Helen Cannon Bond and Marian Cannon Schlesinger, a painter and author living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Walter Cannon died on October 1, 1945 in Franklin, New Hampshire.
Read more about this topic: Walter Bradford Cannon
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