Dr. Henry H. Corn, Polk County

Interviewee: Henry H. Corn
Interviewer: Kate Scott
Date of Interview: 12/12/07
Run Time: Approximately 40M

Cassette
Biographical Data Form
Oral History Release
Loretta Fingert, “A doctor like his grandfather: A mother’s wish for her son as he practices medicine,” Des Moines Register,
Sunday, June 11, 2000, pg. 17A
Photograph (1)
Transcript

Born in Des Moines in 1911, Dr. Henry H. Corn served the local community as a pediatrician throughout several polio epidemics. Corn, a 1929 graduate of North High School, earned his B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1933 and immediately entered the University of Iowa School of Medicine. He went to the medical center in Omaha, Nebraska for his internship and practiced general medicine before joining the U.S. Army as a medical officer. “I was very fortunate,” recalls Corn, “because I was Jewish…I never experienced any discrimination.” Through an educational subsidy offered by the U.S. Army, Corn was able to acquire a specialty in pediatrics. Corn reflected on his experiences as a pediatrician in Des Moines during the early fifties, “The horrible epidemics were in 1951 and 1952, particularly 1952…it was horrible. It was horrible for all of the doctors and the patients at that time but it was so time-consuming [I] just practically lived at the hospital. I would have some of my patients come into the hospital into the emergency room where I’d see them because we spent so much time at the hospital treating polio patients.” As a pediatrician at Blank Children’s Hospital, Corn worked with a number of prominent Des Moines doctors such as Hill, Dyson, Fisk, Updegraff, Lyons, and Kelly. Corn still lives in Des Moines and was quick to note that he still has his driver’s license and is able to drive at night; he joked before his interview started, “Yes, I am 96 years old…and, unfortunately, I am in perfect health.”