Bailey, Charles P.

Bailey, Charles P. (Philamore)

(1911–93) surgeon; born in Wanamassa, N.J. He took his B.A. at Rutgers, his M.D. from Hahnemann Medical College (Philadelphia) (1932) and went on to earn M.S. and D.Sc. degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. He was chief of thoracic surgery at Hahnemann University Hospital during the 1940s and 1950s; director of cardiovascular surgery at the Deborah Heart and Lung Center in Browns Mills, N.J. (1956–61); professor and director of general surgery at the New York Medical College and Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospitals (1959–62); and held numerous other administrative, surgical, and teaching posts. During the 1940s he pioneered in surgical procedures, techniques, and instruments that made possible direct surgery on the human heart. Admired as an innovative and intrepid surgeon, he was also known for his often volatile temperament and uncompromising ways. In the late 1960s he began studying law in the evenings at Fordham Law School (New York City); after he took his law degree he stopped doing surgery in the mid-1970s and became a consultant to law firms and insurance.