Beverly Douglas was born in Nashville on September 23, 1891. He began his academic training at Vanderbilt; however, transferred to Princeton where he received Litt.B. degree. He enrolled at Vanderbilt Medical School in 1914 and completed two years before transferring to Johns Hopkins. After graduation from Hopkins he became the first and for many years the only plastic surgeon in Nashville. He served on both the faculty and clinical faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and was elevated to professor clinical surgery emeritus at the time of his retirement in 1960. Well regarded as both a surgeon and a scientist, Douglas is known for a technique that he developed and bears his name to save the lives of short-jawed infants. He also researched and published extensively on the leg ulcer and spontaneous healing of severed arteries. A man of varied interests and talents, he was also known for his inventions -- both medical and non-medical. Two of his inventions were awarded patents from the U.S. Patent office, the first being a vapor injection system for internal combustion engines (3,930,470) and the second being a chemically heated container for foods and beverages (3,653,372). Dr. Douglas died in Nashville on July 22, 1975.