Adapted from "Captain Lawrence L. Bean, Medical Corps, United States Navy"
[biography, dated 17 February June 1959] in Modern Biographical Files collection, Navy Department Library.
Lawrence Lytton Bean
27 March 1900 -
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Lawrence Lytton Bean was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on March 27, 1900, son of William L. and Sallie Koontz Bean, both now deceased. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville) in 1921, and the degree of Doctor of Medicine from Vanderbilt University, at Nashville, in 1925. He served a rotating internship at Knickerbocker Hospital in New York City from 1925 to 1927, and the next two years held a Residency in Surgery at New York Post Graduate Hospital and Medical School.
He had World War I service during the period September to December 1918 as a member of the Fifth Infantry Officers Training School, Camp Pike, Arkansas, and from June 1925 to June 1930, after his graduation from Medical School, he served as First Lieutenant in the US Army Medical Corps Reserve. Commissioned Lieutenant Commander in the Medical Corps of the US Naval Reserve, on April 15, 1942, he began active service a month later, and in February 1946 was transferred from the Naval Reserve to the US Navy in the rank of Commander . He subsequently attained the rank of Captain, to date from August 1, 1939.
Reporting first to the US Naval Training Station, San Diego, California, he served from May to August 1942 in the Dispensary there. He then joined USS Hornet, and was serving as Surgeon on board that aircraft carrier when she was sunk by the Japanese on October 26, 1942. In November 1942 he reported as Senior Medical Officer on ·aboard USS Helena, which after participating in the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Third Savo operation, was also sunk by the Japanese, on July 7, 1943. Again a survivor, he then served for ten months as Surgeon and Ward Medical Officer of Mobile Hospital Unit #4, at Auckland, New Zealand.
From July 1944 until July 1945 he served as Surgeon and War Medical Officer at the Naval Hospital, Long Beach, California, and in August became the Senior Medical Officer of USS Wisconsin, which was present at Tokyo at the termination of World War II. Detached in February 1946, he returned to the Naval Hospital, Long Beach to serve as Chief of Surgery until April 1950. In May he reported as Chief of Surgery at the US Naval Hospital, Guam, Marianas Islands . There he also served as Chairman of the Tumor Board and of the Clinical Conference; as Chief of Surgery at Guam Memorial Hospital; Dean of the Medical School for Medical Assistants, Guam; and as President of the Board of Governors of the Officers Club, during the period ending in June 1952.
Detached from the Naval Hospital, Guam, as Chief of Surgery and Chairman of the Tumor Board, he had similar duty at the Naval Hospital, Great Lakes, Illinois, for three years, after which he served for two years at the Naval Hospital, Corona, California. Under orders of September 19, 1957, he was assigned to Fleet Activities, Sasebo, Japan, and on February 9, 1959, was ordered detached for duty at the Naval Station, Long Beach, California.
A member of the American Medical Association, Fellow of American College of Surgeons, and Diplomate of American Board of Surgery, Dr. Bean is author of: Carcineia, the Sigmoid; Adrenal Tumors, Primary Tumors of the Liver, Recurrent Hernia, and many other medical papers. His college fraternities are Sigma Chi (social) and Phi Chi (medical), and he is a member of Scarabean Honor Society.
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