Dr. Thomas Osmond Summers, Jr. was a graduate of the Medical Department of the University of Nashville in 1871. In 1875 he was appointed chairman of anatomy in the joint medical departments of the University of Nashville and Vanderbilt University. He gained a measure of notoriety for his services during the yellow fever epidemic at Memphis, and became regarded as an expert on the disease. He went on to practice in Jacksonville, Florida, Chicago, New York, and St. Louis where he served as Professor of Anatomy of the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons, a position he held at the time of his untimely death. He also served as a surgeon during the Spanish American War with the rank of major in the Second Tennessee Regiment. His father Thomas Osmond Summers, Sr. was professor of Theology at Vanderbilt