Dr. John R. Caulk, urological surgeon of St. Louis, was born at McDaniel, Talbot county, Maryland, October 30, 1882, a son of the late Frank E. and Sarah D. (Wrightson) Caulk. The father was a representative of a prominent Maryland family of Scotch and English lineage and engaged in business as a wholesale tobacconist, winning substantial success. He died in 1894 at the age of forty-one years, while his wife passed away in 1912 at the age of fifty-two. She was also a representative of one of the old Maryland families of English lineage founded in the new world prior to the Revolutionary war. By her marriage she became the mother of four children, one of whom, a daughter, died in childhood.
Dr. Caulk, the eldest of the family, was educated in the primary and high schools of Easton, Talbot county, Maryland, and in St. John’s College at Annapolis, a military school, where in his senior year he was commanding officer, holding the rank of major of the battalion. There he was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1901, while in 1912 his alma mater conferred upon him the Master of Arts degree. His medical education was obtained in the Johns Hopkins University, from which he was graduated in 1906, subsequent to which time he served for eighteen months as an interne in the Union Protestant Infirmary. He acted as assistant resident surgeon in the same institution under Dr. John M. T. Finney and from 1907 until the middle of 1910 was assistant resident surgeon and resident urological surgeon at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, with which he was thus connected for three and a half years.
Dr. Caulk came to St. Louis in June, 1910, and here entered upon private practice, during which time he has been chief of staff of the genito-urinary clinic at the Washington University, also assistant surgeon of the Barnes Hospital, urologist at the St. Louis Children’s Hospital and also urologist at St. Luke’s Hospital. He is associate editor on surgery, gynecology and obstetrics and has contributed many articles to leading medical journals. He is likewise corresponding editor of the American Journal on Syphilis and associate editor of the American Journal of Urology. With the various leading scientific societies having to do with his profession he is associated in membership relations, these including the American Urological Society, American Association of Genito-Urinary Surgeons, American Society of Clinical Genito Surgery, the American College of Surgeons, the Southern Medical Association, being chairman of its surgical section and the International Association of Urology. He is a member of the St. Louis Medical, Missouri State, and American Medical Associations, also of the St. Louis Association of Surgeons and the St. Louis Surgical Society, of which he has been president. During the World war he served on the medical advisory board and taught urology to medical officers in the Army School of Urology at St. Louis for a period of eight months.
At Baltimore, Maryland, on the 1st of June, 1910, Dr. Caulk was married to Miss Bessie Jenifer Harrison, a daughter of Harry Tucker and Mary (Jenifer) Harrisoh, the former being an own cousin of Benjamin Harrison and a direct descendant of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Dr. and Mrs. Caulk have become parents of two children: John R., born February 12, 1913, in St. Louis; and Marian Elizabeth, born September 30, 1914.
Dr. Caulk turns to horseback riding, golf, motoring and outdoor sports for recreation and diversion, thus obtaining relief from the arduous duties of the profession. His political endorsement is given to the democratic party and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. He belongs to the Phi Beta Phi, a medical fraternity, Beta Theta Phi, a college fraternity, and to the St. Louis, University and Bellerive Clubs, having wide acquaintance in these organizations, his social position equaling his professional prominence.