Evening star., 1916-02-20
RED CROSS IS TO GET
SERVICE OF COL. kEAN
Designated by War Department to
Cooperate in Relief
Activities.
Descendant of Thomas Jefferson
With Distinguished Record
in q. S. Army.

Col Jefferson Randolph Kean, great
eat-rrandson of Thomas Jefferson, has
h..n des;1nated by the War Department
70 co-onerste with the American Red
Cross in its war relief preparedness ac-
tivities. being specially assigned to VI
ranize field hospital and supply co'-
umns
The American Red Cross is hopeiui
that Congress at this session VIII pass
legislation making possible Col. kean
pern,anent detail as director general OF
military relief for the Red Cross. MAJ
Gen. Arthur Murray. U. s. Army, re-
tired, vice chairman of the central co'1-
mittee of the American Red Cross mas
the further title of director general OF
military relief (pro tem).
The American Red Cross now has three
army officers contributing actively 10 .1e
administrative affairs at national neau-
and Mai Robert U. Patterson. Medlcai
Corps, United States Army. chief OF its
medical bureau. who is detaileo py '.e ne
War Department under eAlsunS IA" "
serve with the Red Cross.
80 Career a Distinguished One.
Col. Kean was authorized to take
charge of this Red Cross work tempora :
rily by Surgeon General William c. Cor
gas, U. s. A.. with the approval OF the
Secretary of War. Col. Kean, who Is a
native of Lynchburg. Va. has had long
and distinguished career @ in the atsn Mea,tai
served as president OF the Assocta ton OF
Military Surgeons of the United states:
He was chief surgeon OF the Department
Of Havana and Pinar del Rio in Cuba un-
T,eQ and lyuV.
was connected in an administrative ca
pacity with the yellow fever board unoef
Gen. Walter Reed. and for his participa.
tion in this work, which demonstrated
the transmission of yellow fever by a
species of mosquito. he was commended
by Secretary o. War Root; served. with
rank of major. as superintendent OF the
department Of charities of Cuba and on
the staff of Military Governor Leonard
Wood and had control OF all neld nos
pitals. asylums and eleemosynary insti-
tutions of the island.
In 1901 Maj. Kean was placed IN charge
of the supply division of the surgeon gen
erals ONCE, under Surgeon General
O'Reilly. and prepared many important
administrative papers. In the capacity OF
chief Of the supply division of the surgeon
generals department, Mai. Kean insti-
tuted the separate system OF field medi-
cal supply depots, which system has
brought about an accumulation OF re-
serve field equipment and promoted the
preparedness of the medical department.
for war relief work He drafted the law
reorganiZng the Medical Corps which
was enacted April 27( 1908.
Called to Cuba by Taft.
In September. 1906. when Secretary of
War Taft landed in Havana and pro-
claimed the government Of Intervention
he cabled for Maj. Kean to report to him
and placed under his direction the sani-
tary affairs of the Island of Cuba, in
which capacity he served until the end
Of the Intervention government in Janu-
ary. 1903, in the meantime completely
suppressing yellow fever, which had re-
invaded the island. In this period he
also reorganized the insular sanitary
service and consolidated with it the de-
partmept Of charities. He was again de-
tailed to the surgeon generals office in
1908 and assigned by Gen. Torney as
chief Of the sanitary division. He was
advanced to a lieutenant colonelcy early
in that year. As one Of the three United
States delegates selected by the Secre-
tary Of State, he attended the interna-
tional sanitary conference in Paris in
1911. when an international treaty for
the control of plague, cholera and yellow
fever was negotiated. He was made a
colonel in 1914.