Thurman Delna Kitchin, physician and educator, was born October 17, 1885, in Scotland Neck, N.C., to William Hodge Kitchin and Maria Figures Arrington. William Hodge Kitchin was a Confederate soldier and attorney who served one term (1878-1880) as a U.S. Congressman.
Thurman Delna Kitchin had nine brothers and one sister including William Walton Kitchin, a Wake Forest graduate (1884), lawyer, Congressman (1896-1908), and N.C. governor (1909-1913); Claude Kitchin, a Wake Forest graduate (1888), lawyer, and Congressman (1901-1923); and Alvin Paul Kitchin, Sr., a lawyer and N.C. state legislator (1907, 1909, 1911).
Thurman Delna Kitchin attended Vine Hill Male Academy before entering Wake Forest College, graduating with an A.B. degree (1905). Interested in medicine, Kitchin attended UNC (1905-1906) and received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College (1906-1908) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He then practiced medicine in eastern North Carolina, Lumberton (1908-1910) and Scotland Neck (1910-1917), before returning to Wake Forest College in 1917 as professor of physiology and pharmacology. Kitchin became Dean of the Wake Forest Medical School in 1919.
Kitchin was selected as president of Wake Forest College in 1930, and under his leadership, Wake Forest advanced as an institution in some key ways. Kitchin assisted with the relocation of the Wake Forest Medical School to Winston-Salem in 1941 and enlarged from a two-year to a four-year degree program. Kitchin increased the student body size, with the acceptance of women in 1942. He resigned in 1950 after 20 years as College president.
In addition to professional work, Kitchin also served as president of the North Carolina Medical Association (1928-1929) and was active in numerous medical and educational organizations as well as authoring several medical book, including
Together, Kitchin and his wife, Reba Calvert Clark Kitchin, had 3 sons: Thurman Delna, Jr., Irwin Clark, and William Walton. He died on August 28, 1955, in Wake Forest and was buried in Trinity Episcopal Cemetery, Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.
Office of the President.Thurman Delna Kitchin Records (RG1.9), Z. Smith Reynolds Library Special Collections and Archives, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
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