John Blair Deaver

John Blair Deaver (July 25, 1855 - September 25, 1931) was an American surgeon and educator who taught surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine for over twenty years including as John Rhea Barton Professor of Surgery from 1918 to 1922 and as emeritus professor of surgery from 1922 to 1931. He served as chief of surgery at the German Hospital in Philadelphia for over 40 years. He was an innovator in abdominal surgery and an advocate of early and preventative appendectomies. He was a prolific surgeon and it is estimated he performed 100,000 surgeries during the course of his career. He was known for the Deaver incision used during appendectomies and invented the Deaver retractor used in abdominal surgeries. He was a founding member of the American College of Surgeons and served as the fifth president from 1921 to 1922.