Pioneer physician: Dr. Smith

Returning in 1909 from a three-year period of medical work in the Pribilof Islands sealing industry, Dr. Frank Holmes Smith opened an office on the second floor of a grocery store in San Bruno and began serving the community as their physician. Born in 1879 in Minnesota, Dr. Smith graduated from Cooper Medical College in San Francisco and served his internship at French Hospital. Cooper Medical College later became a part of Stanford University.

Young and eager to practice medicine, he had accepted a job in Alaska with the hope of gaining experience. Successful at this endeavor, he returned to the Bay Area and San Bruno. For the first few years he made his house calls using a bicycle for transportation and accepted almost any form of goods for his services. Established after three years, he married Dolores Fisher, from San Jose, and in 1913 a son, Harry, was born to the couple.

Business prospered and in 1917 he purchased a home at the corner of Jenevein and San Mateo Avenue in San Bruno. His wife Dolores immediately created a flower garden that ran north along San Mateo Avenue to the present bar at Sylvan Avenue. The community delighted in showing visitors the extensive, beautiful, well-kept garden that became the showpiece of the avenues.

Dr. Smith immersed himself in community affairs, becoming a city-councilmember from 1920 to 1928. At the same time he was the City Health Officer as well as the County Health Officer for many years. He was a member of the San Mateo High School and Junior College board and was active in numerous lodges and fraternal organizations. He enjoyed working with the Scouts and his pleasant personality made him a welcome addition to any gathering.

His brother Harry was sports editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and frequently visited the family in San Bruno. The duo of Dr. Frank Smith and Harry at an event made the event an instant success.

Dr. Smith built an office next to his house on Jenevein Avenue. Due to the proximity of his home, Dr. Smith could serve patients at all hours of the day without delay of traveling to the sick or injured patient’s home.

In the latter part of 1938, Dr. Smith was treating a patient, a Mrs. Cornell, who had broken her arm falling off of a horse while on vacation with her husband. The arm did not heal correctly and a bone infection ensued that caused intense pain to the lady. She continued to work as a secretary in an office in San Francisco, although at times she could type with only one hand due to the pain. She saw Dr. Smith on numerous occasions but her condition did not improve. She sought medicine of every nature that would ease the pain, but to no avail. At times the pain "crazed” her, but Dr. Smith could not offer her any relief. On one occasion Dr. Smith mentioned to another doctor, while tending to another patient at Mills Memorial Hospital, that he had a patient that he thought was a "mental case,” and he was having difficulty dealing with her.

On Saturday, February 19, 1938, Mrs. Cornell visited Dr. Smith at his office in the afternoon. About eight o’clock in the evening, Mrs. Smith became worried that her husband had not returned from the office and, seeing his light on in the office, went to investigate. Sprawled in the doorway she found Mrs. Cornell lying on the floor, dead, with a gunshot wound in the head. A few feet from Mrs. Cornell, Dr. Smith lay on the floor, dead from a gunshot wound.

It was later discovered that Mrs. Cornell had convinced her husband to buy a revolver for protection during a proposed camping trip. The revolver, however, was taken by Mrs. Cornell to Dr. Smith’s office and used in shooting him before she turned the revolver on herself.

The career of Dr. Smith, a remarkable pioneering physician of San Mateo County, was tragically cut short by this unfortunate event. Luckily for the community, Dr. Frank Holmes Smith’s son, Harry, completed his physician’s degree in June, 1938, and he replaced his father as the community’s physician. He practiced in San Bruno until he died in 1984.