Isaac Alexander Bigger

Born: 1893
Education: University of Virginia
Position at VCU: MCV School of Medicine
Died: 1955

Isaac Alexander Bigger, Jr., surgeon and educator, was born in Bethel, South Carolina. He attended Erskine College and Davidson College before entering medical school at the University of Virginia (UVA). Following his graduation from medical school, Bigger remained at UVA for his surgical residency. He served on the faculty at their medical school for thirteen years before accepting an associate professorship in surgery at Vanderbilt University. In 1930, Medical College of Virginia President William T. Sanger recruited him to Richmond to serve as the institution’s first full-time chair of the department of surgery. During his tenure, he expanded and enhanced the residency program, hired additional full-time teaching faculty, and pursued his interest in thoracic surgery. A lifelong sufferer of asthma, Bigger succumbed to the disease in January of 1955 while still serving as department chair.  The Bigger Auditorium in Sanger Hall is named in memory of him.

Artist: Hopkinson, Charles
Date: 1950
Location: VCU Health Sciences Library