Biographies
Ellen S. Loeffel (1906 - 1995)
Ellen Shattuck Loeffel, born in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 1906, received her A.B. degree from Mt. Holyoke College in 1928, later entering medical school at Columbia University. She transferred to the Washington University School of Medicine in her third year, and received her degree in June 1935 (one of two women in the class). She received the George F. Gill Prize for Pediatrics, which offered an award of $50 to a member of the graduating class who had done especially good work in the Department of Pediatrics. Loeffel spent 3 years in post-graduate training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University Hospital in Oklahoma City. She then returned to St. Louis in 1938 and became affiliated with St. Luke’s Hospital. The following year she was appointed to the staff of Jewish Hospital. Loeffel was also on the staff of the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital from 1938 to 1945, and of Booth Memorial Hospital from 1950 to 1961, when its private service was closed and the obstetrical patients sent to Jewish Hospital.
In addition to her patient load, Loeffel collaborated in research of endocrines related to the reproductive system in women. The results of her research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology, and the Proceedings of the Society of Experimental Biology and Medicine. Loeffel served as president of the Women’s Physician Association of St. Louis and as an officer of the St. Louis Medical Society. Loeffel’s civic activities included devoting time to the YWCA’s Board of Directors, the Social Health Association, the St. Louis Health and Welfare Council, and the United Way. In 1985 she received an Alumni Achievement Award from the Washington University Medical Center Alumni Association. Loeffel retired in 1987 after over 50 years of practice.
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