EARL E GILFILLAN

GILFILLAN, MOON, MCCLURG

Posted By: Deb Barker (email)
Date: 11/8/2005 at 19:56:28

EARL E GILFILLAN, M D- A major contribution to the field of medicine and the health and welfare of the people of the North Central States is being made by Dr Earl E Gilfillan of Bloomfield, a specialist in internal medicine. Dr Gilfillan practices at the Gilfillan Clinic, which, with three brothers, he founded in 1946. This clinic has developed into a popular group medical center, with a large practice coming from many states aside from Iowa. Dr Gilfillan, who has practiced in both Iowa and Missouri, also made his contribution through service with the United States Navy in World War II. He is, of course, a member of the family famed in medicine in Iowa since the middle of the last century.
Dr Earl E Gilfillan was born in Mount Pleasant on April 28, 1907, the son of Dr Homer J Gilfillan, the physician and surgeon who for fifty years practiced in various Iowa cities and who now resides in Bloomfield in retirement, and of Clara (Moon) Gilfillan. His father’s life is chronicaled in a separate biography appearing on other pages of this Iowa history.
After being graduated from the Milton High School at Milton, in Van Buren County, where his father practiced for a long time, Earl Gilfillan spent 2 years at Iowa Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant, another scene of his father’s practice. He then studied at the State University of Iowa, Iowa City, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1931. He spent his internship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and upon his return to Iowa, established a practice at Pulaski, but remained there only 3 years, moving at the end of his period to Memphis, Missouri, about 35 miles to the south of Bloomfield. Though he no longer practices in that city, he still makes it his home.
Dr Gilfillan left Memphis soon after the American entry in World War II, to join the United States Navy with the commission of a lieutenant commander. At first stationed at Norman, Oklahoma, he was at sea for months, chiefly in the South Pacific. Separated from the service in 1946, he returned in time to participate, with his brothers, in the founding of The Gilfillan Clinic in Bloomfield. The brothers, each of whom is the subject of a biography also appearing in this history, are Dr George W Gilfillan, surgeon; Dr Clarence D N Gilfillan, surgeon; and Dr Homer J Gilfillan, Jr, specialist in diseases of the eye, ear, nose, and throat. Two employed associates are Dr R S Schoonover, urologist, and Dr S R Jaskunas, obstetrician and gynecologist. Dr Earl Gilfillan rounds out the group by specializing as internist. This medical unit has attained great stature in the professional as well as the lay world.
Dr Earl E Gilfillan married Luzon McClurg, the daughter of Dr C McClurg, prominent dental surgeon at Milton, in 1928. They are the parents of one daughter, Gertrude, who was born in 1929, now the wide of Roland Oaks and residing at Columbia, Missouri.
Dr Gilfillan is a member of the Davis County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the American Legion, and the Missouri State Medical Association. He is a Republican and worships in the Methodist Church. Mrs Gilfillan is active in club and civic affairs at Memphis.