Gibb, Robert Burns, M. D.

The following data is extracted from A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans.

Robert Burns Gibb, M. D. As a surgeon one of the foremost in Kansas in point of ability and prestige is Dr. R. R. Gibb of Pittsburg. Doctor Gibb is still a young man, not yet forty, yet has had the experience and training which have matured his unusual natural gifts and his reputation and position are now well assured.

Coming to Kansas after he had completed his medical course, Doctor Gibb was born at Fairbury, Illinois, December 15, 1878. He is of Scotch ancestry His grandfather John Gibb was born in Chapel Hall, Scotland, in 1812. He was in the coal business in Scotland for many years and coming to this country in 1846 located at Lonaconing, Maryland, and afterwards moved to Fairbury, Illinois. He was a well known coal operator, and his relations with that business finally brought him to Pittsburg, Kansas, where he died in 1898. He married Jeannette Stevenson, who was born at Chapol Hall, Scotland, in 1812 and died in Woodson County, Kansas, in 1890.

John Gibb, Jr., father of Doctor Gibb, was born in Scotland in 1840, and was brought to America at the age of six years. He spent his early life at Lonaconing, Allegany County, Maryland, and also at Fairbury, Illinois. At Fairbury he became identified with the coal business, and in 1882 removed to Miles City, Montana, where he still resides. He has been very prominent in civic and political affairs in Miles City, being a republican. For four years he served as sheriff of Custer County, Montana, represented his district one term in the legislature and has attended many county, state and national conventions of his party. He is a Mason and a member of the order of Elks. John Gibb married Anna R. Ireland, who was born in La Salle, Illinois, in 1842. Their children are John F., who is associated with a leading newspaper at Miles City, Montana; William, who is a graduate of the Louisville, Kentucky, College of Dentistry, and is now practicing his profession at Miles City; Daisy married James Campbell, assistant superintendent in the smelter at Great Falls, Moutans; and Doctor R. B. Gibb.

Taken to Montana when about five years of age, Doctor Gibb attended the public schools of Miles City and spent two years in a high school there. He then entered the medical department of the Central University of Kentucky, from which he was graduated Doctor of Medicine June 28, 1900. He received the highest honors in his class and also individual honors in surgery and diseases of women. Even while in the university his promising career in the field of surgery was definitely anticipated. By competitive examination he won an interneship in the City Hospital of Louisville, and had that special advantage for one year before beginning practice.

For the past fifteen years Doctor Gibb has accepted every opportunity to observe and study the best methods of surgery and to associate with the leaders in that field. In 1909 he spent a year abroad, visiting hospitals and clinics in many of the leading medical centers, especially Vienna, Berlin, Paris, Budapest, Glasgow and London. He has taken post-graduate work with the Mayos at Rochester, Minnesota, in the New York Post-Graduate School and has attended clinics in Philadelphia, Boston and Cleveland.

Towards the close of 1900 Doctor Gibb located at Pittsburg and began a general practice. For the last ten years, however, he has specialized in surgery and diagnosis and in those departments he has few peers in southeastern Kansas. His offices are in the Kirkwood Building at Seventh Street and Broadway.

Doctor Gibb is a member of the Pittsburg, the Crawford County, the Kansas State and the Southeastern Medical societies, the American Medical Association, the International Surgeons Society of Rochester. Minnesota, and belongs to the Clinical Surgical Society of America. Membership in this last named organization is one especially prized by American surgeons. To qualify for election as a member formerly it was necessary to contribute some original device, discovery or paper to the science of surgery. Membership in that society also makes Doctor Gibb eligible to the American College of Surgeons. He is a republican in politics and fraternally is identified with Pittsburg Lodge No. 187, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Pittsburg Chapter No. 58 Royal Arch Masons, Pittsburg Commandery No. 29 Knights Templar, and Mirzah Temple of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine at Pittsburg.

In 1903 in Kansas City, Missouri, Doctor Gibb married Miss Ray N. Kirkwood, a daughter of the late Archibald B. Kirkwood, one of the distinguished citizens of Pittsburg whose career is sketched on other paged. Doctor and Mrs. Gibb have one daughter, Eleanor G., born March 7, 1911.

Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans

  Go Back