A brilliant medical doctor and specialist in fractures and head injuries, Louis Wright made strides in multiple directions in the field of medicine. His greatest accomplishments include his perfection of an intradermal smallpox vaccination, the use of Aureomycin for lymphogranuloma venereum (a viral venereal disease), the treatment of humans with antibiotic chlortetracycline, the invention of a brace to cushion head and neck injuries, a blade plate for the treatment of knee fractures, and drug therapy for cancer. The son of Dr. Ceah Ketcham and Lulu Tompkins Wright, he was born in LaGrange, Georgia, on July 23, 1891. His father died in 1895, leaving the family penniless. To support her children, Wright's mother worked as a dormitory matron.

Influenced by his stepfather, Dr. William Fletcher Penn, Wright decided to study medicine. He earned a B.A. from Clark University in Atlanta in 1911 and graduated valedictorian of his class. While studying for his...