Orvan Hess

Who was Orvan Hess?

Orvan Walter Hess was a physician noted for his early use of penicillin and the development of the fetal heart monitor.

Hess was born in Baoba, Pennsylvania. At the age of two, after his mother's death, the family moved to Margaretville, New York where he grew up. Hess was inspired by Doctor Gordon Bostwick Maurer—who started Margaretville's first hospital in 1925— to study medicine. He married Dr. Maurer's sister, Carol Maurer, in 1928.

Hess went to Lafayette College and was graduated in 1927, and received his MD from the University at Buffalo. He completed an internship at Children's Hospital in Buffalo, New York and became an obstetrician and gynecologist.

For most of his career, Hess practiced at Yale-New Haven Hospital, interrupted by World War II service as a surgeon in the 48th Armored Medical Battalion attached to the 2nd Armored Division in the invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Normandy.

He was clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine. He also served as president of the Connecticut State Medical Society, and director of health services for the Connecticut Welfare Department. Hess died in New Haven at the age of 96.