J. Lynwood Herrington was born in Waynesboro, Georgia, on November 24, 1919. He graduated from Vanderbilt University with his B.A. in 1941 and with his M.D. in 1945. After residency training in surgery at Vanderbilt and St. Thomas, he joined the Edwards-Eve Clinic in Nashville as a general surgeon. From 1951 to 1953, Herrington served as an Army Surgeon stationed in Yokohama, Japan.

Dr. Herrington was a world authority on gastric physiology and gastric surgery, having authored many article on gastric surgery and on the history of appendicitis. He served as the President of the Southern Surgical Association in 1987 and retired as Senior Surgeon of the Edwards-Eve Clinic in Nashville, Tennessee. Herrington also served as a clinical professor of surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical School and trained many of its residents.