SMCMA 2005

Physician of the Century: Harold D. Chope

As a tribute to the San Mateo County Medical Association’s 100th anniversary year, a special award was conceived to honor the "Physician of the Century" in San Mateo County. After considerable deliberation, Harold D. Chope, M.D., was awarded this honor as the one physician who most impacted the delivery of health care in San Mateo County in the past 100 years.

Born in 1904 in King City, California—the same year a few physicians met to explore the possibility of starting a medical society for San Mateo County—Dr. Chope spent most of his career in medicine enmeshed in the health and welfare issues of this county.

From 1948 until his retirement in 1970, Dr. Chope was director of the Department of Public Health and Welfare of San Mateo County and head of the San Mateo County Community Hospital. In recognition of his dedication and achievements, Community Hospital was renamed the Harold D. Chope Community Hospital at his retirement.

His son, Peter Chope, accepted the award at the September Centennial Celebration and Annual Meeting of the San Mateo County Medical Association. Grandchildren and other family members also were in attendance, along with his secretary of 21 years, Virginia Daetz. His wife of 53 years, Marjorie Ann Campbell, died in 1982.

Dr. Chope received his B.A. degree at Stanford University and his medical degree from the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1931. He attended the Harvard School of Public Health for a master’s and a doctorate in public health, where he was graduated cum laude in 1940.

During WWII he was attached to the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Center and assigned to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to assist with the organization of a health center.

He returned to California in 1944 as assistant district health officer of the San Joaquin Local Health District until his successful bid for the health director’s position in San Mateo County. In the years prior to his appointment, the county health department had a checkered past marred by scandals, political shenanigans, and in-fighting. Dr. Chope was credited with turning the department around into an efficient, forward-thinking organization within just a couple of years. As the population of the county grew so did the health department from four divisions when he arrived to nine divisions with a staff of 250 during Chope’s tenure.

As director of the health department, Dr. Chope worked closely with the physicians of the county Medical Society. He frequently expressed his respect for these physicians as in this quote from the early 1960s: "I have never found a better group of doctors than there are in this county. Every major idea we have presented has first been presented to the county Medical Society. Other doctors have a chance to contribute. It is a cordial relationship."

He was able to surround himself with a competent, dedicated staff, work with the Board of Supervisors to arrange bond issues for new construction and improvements, and re-institute a program to make the hospital a teaching hospital for Stanford medical school residents. "At that time it was considered a real privilege to be on the staff at Community. And many private-practice physicians in the surrounding communities were attending physicians there to assist with the training of the residents," explained Basil Meyerowtiz, M.D., who was chief of surgery from 1967 to the early 1980s.

"In dealing with the Board of Supervisors, he was in his element," James Brodie, M.D., was quoted at the time. "He knew how to get funding and how to get things implemented. He was a political animal . . . and could really influence people."

Dr. Harold Chope became nationally and internationally known for his effective administration of the San Mateo County Health and Welfare Department and for his innovative treatment techniques in the area of mental health. He favored the "unlocked door" policy for mental health patients and the use of such drugs as LSD, which proved to be somewhat controversial with San Mateo residents. He insisted that all patients be treated with respect regardless of their illness or ability to pay and never as indigents.

Director Chope was equally innovative and down to earth in dealing with his staff. "To him, no one was on another level," recalled his secretary Virginia Daetz. "He had an open door policy and was always prepared to listen to problems and help employees. He knew everyone by first name. The staff became one big family."

During the years of the War new facilities were off the agenda. But in 1946, 1948, 1953, and 1965 the voters approved large bond issues to add beds, expand facilities for new programs, and improve existing buildings. A new tuberculosis facility was considered the best in the state and in 1955 a health center was built in north county to house dependent and neglected children.

Community Hospital was the only facility in San Mateo County that accepted patients suffering from polio when the infantile par-alysis epidemic hit in the early 1950s. Dr. Chope arranged a special isolation ward on the first floor of the hospital to house these patients. The facility had 10 iron lungs for the most seriously ill. When the Salk and Sabin vaccines became available in quantity, Dr. Chope coordinated distribution and, with the help of many volunteer hours by physicians and nurses, vaccinated some 18,000 children.

Besides running this large department, Dr. Chope taught preventive medicine at Stanford and was in demand for lectures and speaking engagements around the country. He served on dozens of committees, boards of directors, and planning commissions (including the governor’s Advisory Committee on Mental Health, 1963, and the governor’s Study Commission on Mental Retardation, 1963-65) and published more than two-dozen articles on public health topics.

In 1963, at the height of his career, Health Director Chope was awarded the Bronfman Award, the nation’s highest honor in public health. Presented by the Public Health Association, the inscription on the award read, in part, presented for "imaginative administration" integrating "the physical, mental, and social components essential to a healthy democratic society." And, "His dynamic teaching which began in his earliest professional years zealously challenges his colleagues and inspires future physicians and public health workers. His leadership is a beacon to this nation in the application of scientific knowledge to the betterment of community health." Dr. Chope died in 1976.

Harold D. Chope, M.D., was an exemplary example of the dedi-cation and excellence that typify the physicians of San Mateo County and is a worthy choice for "Physician of the Century."