Dr. Groover's work as a practising radiologist was characterized by the utmost painstaking care and attention to detail.
Thomas Allen Groover, M.D.— 1877-1940
Thomas Allen Groover was born at Pidcock, in southern Georgia, on May 1, 1877, a son of Thomas Alfred and Sarah Jane (Joiner) Groover. His father, who was a farmer, was a Confederate soldier during the Civil War and had lost an arm in action. Dr. Groover received his early education in the public schools of Brooks County, Georgia. Because of financial considerations it did not seem possible for him to continue his education, but through the good offices of the Hon. Hoke Smith, of Georgia, who was Secretary of the Interior in President Cleveland's Cabinet, he was appointed as assistant messenger in the Department of the Interior. He then came to Washington, in 1893, and resided there all the remainder of his life. In 1894, he entered the Medical Department of Columbian University, which later became The George Washington University, and graduated therefrom in 1898. In 1926, his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Science. After internship at the Garfield Memorial Hospital he was appointed physician with the Isthmian Canal Commission and in that capacity spent the next year in Nicaragua.
Dr. Groover returned to Washington, in 1900, and entered the general practice of medicine. At the same time he began x-ray work at the Central Dispensary and Emergency Hospital. Although he did not completely specialize in radiology until 1912, he was actively engaged in that field from his entry into it, in 1900, up to within three months of his death which occurred on April 20, 1940. It was in those early days from 1900 to about 1904 or 1905 that he suffered the injuries to his hands which resulted in amputation through the left forearm, in 1926, and to final involvement of the right axilla and lung which cost him his life.
Dr. Groover was closely associated with the scientific progress and the organizational development of radiology in this country during the entire first forty years of the present century. He made numerous contributions to the literature and was always interested and quietly helpful in everything that affected the welfare of the specialty that he loved. He was insistent, however, that the radiologist is primarily a physician, and as such he always established a personal relationship with every patient who came under his care. His membership in medical organizations included the following: Medical Society of the District of Columbia, of which he was President in 1925; Fellow of the American Medical Association; Fellow of the American College of Physicians; member of the Southern Medical Association, of which he was Vice-president in 1924; member of the American Roentgen Ray Society and its President in 1925; member of the Radiological Society of North America; Fellow of the American College of Radiology, in which he served both as President and as Chancellor.
Dr. Groover's work as a practising radiologist was characterized by the utmost painstaking care and attention to detail. He not only required the best possible technical work but spared no time nor personal effort to arrive at a correct interpretation and final diagnosis. He had developed in himself to a very high degree those qualities which are indispensable in the good physician-accuracy in observation and a keen sense of relative values. He was a diagnostician of unusual ability. In manner Dr. Groover was quiet and reserved. Being of a very studious nature, he made it a rule to spend at least one hour a day in the reading of medical literature. He had great qualities both of mind and heart which were unusual and outstanding. His ability as an organizer and executive was well known. His careful, methodical attention to all the details of bookkeeping, records, and management laid the foundation for his professional work. He always looked upon business arrangements, however, as a means to more important ends. He was first and last a physician. Even radiology, in every branch of which he was proficient, he insisted must always be looked upon as an integral part of general medical practice. His outstanding mental characteristics were patience and a great capacity for methodical, painstaking care in every diagnostic and therapeutic procedure. His dominant moral characteristic was a keen sense of justice, right, and fair dealing. He had an unfailing patience in compromising differences of opinion among his associates, a sane judgment in arriving at important decisions, and above all, a kindly, tolerant charity toward all with whom he could not agree. He will be greatly missed by his close associates who were accustomed to call upon him almost daily for his helpful counsel, and his loss will be keenly felt in many organizations in which his advice was highly valued. His death adds another martyr to the long roll of those who have 'sacrificed' their lives in the interests of science and humanity.