Pictured left to right: Romy Shubitowski (Oakland County Medical Society Executive Director), Ashok K. Gupta, MD (Oakland County Medical Society Treasurer and MSMS member)
A new historical marker in Oxford Township, Michigan, is ensuring the legacy of Aileen Betteys Corbit, MD, Oxford’s first woman physician, will be remembered for generations to come.
The marker was recently unveiled at 111 S. Washington Street, where Doctor Corbit once lived and practiced medicine. Born in 1877, she graduated from Oxford High School in 1893 and earned her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Michigan in 1902, joining a small number of women who earned medical degrees from the university at the time.
Doctor Corbit went on to become an active member of the Oakland County Medical Society and Michigan State Medical Society. In addition to caring for patients, she served as Oxford Village’s health officer during the 1920s and 1930s, helping protect the community from contagious diseases and monitoring drinking water quality. Her contributions extended beyond medicine into historical and genealogical research and community service, including helping establish the John Crawford Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution in 1918.
The historical marker celebrates Doctor Corbit’s role as a physician, community leader, and trailblazer for women in medicine. The project was supported in part by a grant from the Michigan State Medical Society Foundation, along with contributions from the John Crawford Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution and Stephens Family Law.
MSMS is proud to have played a role in preserving the story of a fellow member whose work made a lasting impact on medicine and her community.
For more information on the MSMS Foundation, please contact Rebecca Blake at 517-336-5729 or rblake@msms.org.