Bronson Crothers

Bronson Crothers (born July 10, 1884, Elmira, New York, U.S.—died July 17, 1959, Sorrento, Maine) was an American pediatric neurologist who was a leader in public policy issues relating to children with disabilities.

Crothers earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1904 and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1909. He received clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Boston Children’s Hospital. After several years in private practice in Minnesota, he joined the Massachusetts General Hospital Unit of the British Army Medical Corps in 1915. He then joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps after the United States entered World War I. After the war he pursued his interest in neurological diseases, studying in Walter Cannon’s physiology laboratory at Harvard and at the Neurological Institute of New York. Crothers returned to the Boston Children’s Hospital in 1920.

Crothers performed clinical research concerning birth trauma, particularly brachial plexus injuries, and cerebral palsy. He also established an outpatient clinic for children with cerebral palsy that brought together psychologists, nurses, therapists, teachers, surgeons, and social workers. Crothers’s work with some 1,800 people with cerebral palsy culminated in a monograph written with Richmond S. Paine, The Natural History of Cerebral Palsy (1959).

Crothers chaired U.S. Pres. Herbert Hoover’s 1932 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. In addition, he helped found the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy (now American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine).