Mary DeWitt Pettit | |
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Born | January 1, 1908 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | May 5, 1996 (aged 88) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Physician, medical researcher, medical school professor |
Relatives | John Pitkin Norton (great-grandfather) |
Mary DeWitt Pettit (January 1, 1908 – May 5, 1996) was an American physician, medical school professor, and medical researcher. She served as a physician in the United States Navy during World War II. She was a obstetrician and gynecologist on the faculty of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.
Pettit was born in Philadelphia,[1] the daughter of John Reed Pettit[2] and Elsie Norton Pettit.[3] She was descended from Connecticut governor John Treadwell, and abolitionist John Treadwell Norton.[4] Her great-grandfather, John Pitkin Norton, was a chemistry professor at Yale University.[5] She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1928.[6] She earned her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1932.[7][8]
Pettit was an obstetrician and gynecologist on the faculty of Albany Medical College from 1938 to 1946, and at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania from 1946.[7][9] She served as a physician in the United States Navy during World War II,[10] in charge of the women's branch of the hospital at the Marine depot at Parris Island.[2][8] From 1961 to 1962, she was president of the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.[11]
Pettit's research was published in academic journals, including American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology,[12][13][14] Obstetrical & Gynecological Survey,[15] and Endocrinology.[16]
Pettit died in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1996, at the age of 88.[22] Pettit donated the Markoe Family Papers to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1966,[23] and her great-grandfather's papers to Yale University in 1969.[5] Drexel University awards an annual Mary Dewitt Pettit Fellowship, to support the research or special projects of junior faculty members in the College of Medicine.[24][25]