Medical Journeys: Traveling Scholars from the 19th and 20th Centuries

Kehar S. Chouké was born in Chouké, India, a small town founded by his ancestors, in 1885. After receiving the degree of Licensed Medical Practitioner (L.M.P.) in 1906 from the Agra Medical School, Chouké served in the medical department of the Indian Army for seven years. He came to the United States in 1917; after some pre-medical study at the Universities of Illinois and Michigan, Chouké entered the Washington University School of Medicine, graduating with high honors in 1922.

Chouké joined the faculty of Washington University, teaching Anatomy at both the School of Medicine and the School of Dentistry for two years. For the following fifteen years he taught Anatomy at the University of Colorado, where he also received the M.A. degree in Anatomy in 1929. In 1939 Chouké joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Medicine. He became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. in 1946. The following year he was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Chouké remained at the University of Pennsylvania until his retirement from teaching in 1951, whereupon he became a member of the medical staff of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Kecoughtan, Virginia. Chouké died in October 1967.