09/01/2026
Susan Dimock (April 24, 1847 – May 7, 1875) was an American physician who earned her medical degree from the University of Zurich in 1871 and was subsequently appointed resident physician of the New England Hospital for Women and Children in 1872. The hospital, now known as the Dimock Community Health Center, was renamed in her honor after her death in the shipwreck of the SS Schiller in 1875. When her application to Harvard Medical School was rejected, Dimock applied to medical schools in Europe and was admitted to the University of Zurich in Switzerland in 1868. She graduated with high honors in 1871 and her thesis was published the same year. During the final years of her studies, she lived with the family of her friend, fellow physician Marie Heim-Vögtlin, where she was reportedly very happy.[2]
Despite her unstable financial situation, Dimock decided to go to Vienna with fellow Zurich medical graduate Marie Bokowa for a few months, where she met Auguste Forel and C. E. Hoestermann. Dimock, Bokowa, Forel, and Hoestermann called themselves the Wiener Quartett (Vienna quartet) and planned on meeting again in July 1875 in Zurich.[3] After her clinical studies in Vienna and Paris, Dimock returned to the United States.
As the all-male North Carolina Medical Society would only grant her honorary membership, Dimock rejoined the New England Hospital for Women and Children, where she was appointed resident physician on August 20, 1872. She greatly improved and increased the service of the hospital, in the course of which she opened the first graded school of nursing in the United States on September 1, 1872. She worked as a surgeon, developed a private practice in obstetrics and gynecology, and performed a number of important surgical operations, a number of which were mentioned in contemporary medical journals.