Born in Raleigh on November 19, 1871 and died in Raleigh on November 7, 1959.
Dr. Hubert Ashley Royster was born in Raleigh on November 19, 1871. His mother, Molly was attended to by Dr. E. Burke Haywood, and young Hubert weighed about nine pounds at birth when he was delivered at the Royster’s home on 323 West Morgan Street. Hubert’s father, Wisconsin Illinois was one of the first doctors in Raleigh and all of North Carolina and Hubert was raised in Raleigh until he attended Wake Forest College at the age of 17. The Roysters received some fame for the fact that Hubert’s grandfather, James named all of his children with double names after the American states and by 1864 there were more than 60 Roysters in Raleigh.
While at Wake Forest, Hubert played in the first ever collegiate football game in North Carolina in 1888 between Wake Forest and the University of North Carolina, which Wake Forest won 6-4. He also lettered in baseball, lacrosse and tennis there, participated in the debating societies and glee club and upon graduation was fourth in his class. After Wake Forest he attended the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, graduating on June 9, 1894, first in his class and President of the Senior Class. In May of that same year, he took the North Carolina Medical Board Exam where he made the highest score ever recorded, a 99, because he missed one question, misstating that KOH was a liquid when it is actually a solid in its natural state.
After serving a residency at Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh where he combined the usual two years of work into one, Dr. Royster moved to Raleigh in July of 1895 where, as he stated in a letter to his father, Wis, “My dearest thought in life is after all to return to Raleigh, work with you, lighten your burden, if I can, and show how much I value what you have done for me.” Dr. Royster fell in love with his future wife, Louise Page of Maryland, when he saw her picture in his best friend’s room during medical school and boldly announced that he was going to marry her (his best friend’s sister) someday. Two years later he met her and upon being introduced, informed her that he was going to marry her. She promptly told him, “You sir, are a silly man” and walked away. After eight years of courtship, they were married for 58 years and raised three children.
Upon returning to Raleigh, Dr. Royster became the first general surgeon in all of North Carolina and a pioneer in the emerging specialty of surgery. He wrote three books (his treatise on appendicitis was considered the classic text on the subject,) wrote 140 medical papers and over 150 non medical articles for the News and Observer and other publications. He served as President of the North Carolina Medical Society, President of the Southern Surgical Association, Secretary of the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners, President of the Wake County Medical Society, one of the founders of the American Board of Surgery and one of the founders of the American College of Surgeons. In his spare time he served as President of the North Carolina State Literary and Historical Association and President of the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
Despite his national and international acclaim, Dr. Royster’s greatest impact was locally in his hometown of Raleigh and his home state of North Carolina. As he once wrote, “Every member of the medical profession should strive every day to make himself a better doctor; it is also his duty to be a good citizen.” Dr. Royster lived that creed throughout his life by trying to help those who were suffering, whoever or wherever they were. He served as Dean of The University of North Carolina Medical School Medical Department in Raleigh from 1902 until 1910 where he mentored the first student to register and future Dean of the Medical School in Chapel Hill, William deBerniere MacNider. He served as a surgeon at Rex Hospital from 1900 until 1938 and Surgeon in Chief at St. Agnes Hospital from 1899 until 1941. The latter appointment was significant because it was the hospital staffed by and serving African Americans and Dr. Royster responded to their request for help lest it close. As Dr. Lemuel Delany, an African American physician stated “All…physicians who know him honor him because of his superior skill and judgment in the art of surgery and the high sense of justice and sympathy which he has always exhibited toward them.” In 1921, he helped start and led the surgical service at Dix Hospital, which culminated in the building of a medical building for medical patients that was subsequently named Royster Building in his honor and still stands today. Dr. Royster would go to St. Agnes Hospital or Dix in the afternoon where he would often provide free care. About mental health, he wrote “My thesis is simply this: An unbalanced person has as much right as any of us to be made comfortable, to be saved from suffering, to be restored to health, to have life prolonged.”
Dr. Royster’s greatest legacy to Raleigh were the institutions he helped establish, the standards he set, the physicians he inspired and the suffering he relieved. For the last 64 years, a group of physicians have met monthly to present papers to each other in honor of his admonition that they constantly try to improve themselves. The News and Observer, upon his death, wrote an editorial stating “Still in hope and healing in North Carolina, his life remains as an example for the future and a part of the best heritage of our past.” After living in Raleigh for all of his life except for his early years in training , a friend’s quote about him is still apt, “He did not live for himself but for the public good. If you come seeking a monument to him, look around you.”