Dr. William Waddell Duke, physician of Kansas City, was born in Lexington, Missouri, a son of Henry Buford and Susan (Waddell) Duke, the former a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and the latter of Lexington, Missouri. The father, now retired, was a manufacturer of farm implements and harness of the firm of Buford & George Manufacturing Company.
Dr. Duke attended the Kansas City schools until graduated from the high school with the class of 1901. He next entered Yale University and gained his Ph. B. degree in 1904, while in 1908 Johns Hopkins University conferred upon him the M. D. degree, following the completion of the regular four years course in that institution. He next entered the Massachusetts General Hospital as an interne and was graduated in 1910, while in 1911 he did postgraduate work in the University of Vienna. He was voluntary assistant in research at the University of Tubingen, Wurttemberg, in 1912, and since then has devoted his attention to the practice of medicine. He has carried on a consulting practice in internal medicine in Kansas City from 1912 to the present time and has manifested a most active and helpful interest in medical research since entering upon the study o1 medicine and has contributed much to the current literature of the profession. He is the author of a monograph entitled, “Oral Sepsis in Its Relationship to Systemic Disease,” published by the Mosby Publishing Company of St. Louis in 1918.
At Los Angeles, May 18, 1920, Dr. Duke was married to Miss Frances Thomas, a daughter of Mrs. E. C. Thomas, who came from Kentucky to Missouri about 1900. Dr. and Mrs. Duke now have one son, Henry Basil. Dr. Duke and his wife are members of the Baptist church and he belongs also to the Masonic fraternity, while in club circles he is well known as a member of the Kansas City Country and Kansas City University Clubs. He served during the war as a member of the Council of National Defense, a member of the Medical Advisory Board, and was captain in the American Red Cross. He was stationed in Paris at the time of the signing of the armistice, after which he was on duty in Trier and Virton. A slight physical disability prevented him from joining the regular army.
He is now visiting physician at the Christian Church Hospital and professor of experimental medicine in the University of Kansas School of Medicine.