Hugh Hampton Young: father of American urology.

Abstract

“A mighty oak growing in a forest,” they say, “is best measured after it has fallen down.” Hugh Hampton Young was such a mighty oak. His branches cast a broad shadow over the entire continent and his seedlings have grown to groves of excellence in their own right (fig. 1). Hugh Hampton Young was born on September 18, 1870 in San Antonio, Texas, the only child of William Hugh Young, a Confederate Army general, and his wife Frances Michie Kemper Young. In the early years his paternal grandfather, Colonel Hugh Franklin Young, took care of him. The Young and the Kemper family were from Virginia. From Hugh Young’s autobiography it is clear that his grandfather was a heroic role model for him: an untiring huntsman who regaled the young Hugh with stories of dangerous hunts for buffalo and bear, Indian war encounters and eventually stories about the feats of the Confederacy in the Civil War. Many a night after listening to these stories little Hugh Young spent trembling with fear or waking up from a nightmare, during which he had been in fights with savages and fearful beasts.1 The family lived in a stately home not far from the San Antonio River that in the early 1900s was razed to make way for a fine hotel, as his nanny wrote to “dear little Hugh” in 1915. At age 4 years, while playing on the banks of this river, Hugh fell into the water and nearly drowned but was eventually rescued by his mother, who had been called by his playmate. She dove into the river, pulled him up and both of them were subsequently rescued by neighbors. Hugh had to be resuscitated and his father was so overjoyed at the rescue that he dedicated a stained glass window showing Pharaoh’s daughter rescuing Moses from the river, a window that is still one of the showpieces at St. Mark’s Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. When he was about 12 years old, he spent a long summer with his maternal grandparents in Virginia. At the home of his grandfather (who was a busy physician and surgeon) he learned how to make all sorts of toys and “articles for the house.” He learned to use saws, planes, chisels and other tools, and it quickly became evident that he had not only a love, but also a knack for mechanics. He and his cousin built a railroad line across the family’s orchard and built cars for it, while the engine was Hugh and his cousin. He received a tool chest from grandfather Kemper and installed a workshop on his father’s ranch in San Antonio, where he eventually built himself a scroll saw and turning lathe to enable him to build other things. While growing up, he enjoyed fishing, hunting and riding throughout the Texas countryside, pleasures that he not only pursued throughout his life but enriched with boating and flying. He went to public schools, where he was active in athletics. Toward the end of his school time Hugh made it clear that he desired to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather by joining the army. He begged his father to let him go to West Point but not surprisingly his father could not tolerate the idea of his son in a “Yankee” uniform since the Civil War was still fresh in everybody’s memory. Shortly thereafter his grandfather died, a fact that depressed Hugh greatly because he adored his grandfather. The family then decided to send Hugh off to a private school run by the Kemper family in Virginia. While in school, he became involved in some part-time work for an engineering company, a job that he handled so well that he was advised to become an engineer and was even offered a salary while still in training. When he wrote of this to his father with great pride and joy, he received a short telegram from him, “Resign at once and go to the University of Virginia.” Hugh Young began his studies at the University of Virginia in 1890, beginning with courses for a Master of Arts degree. He also became the editor of the college newspaper. When he returned home for a semester break, he told his father that he was interested in going into journalism. The editor of the local San