Robert F. Foote Collection

Robert F. Foote (November 7, 1911 – April 5, 2002) was born in New York City, New York and attended Long Island School of Medicine. Foote joined the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1939 and would graduate from Naval Medical School in June 1941. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Foote became Assistant Chief of Surgery at a field hospital on American and British Samoa, specializing in surgery on knife and gunshot wounds. Foote worked with the Marine Battalion tasked with securing Upula and Savii Islands within American Samoa. Foote served on the mainland before joining the medical ship USS Samaritan for the proposed invasion of Japan. When Japan surrendered, Foote was stationed in Yokosuka, Japan, but also traveled to Sasebo, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Guam, Kauai, and Oakland, California.

Robert F. Foote retired from the United States Navy in 1947 but continued to collaborate with the Navy until the early 1950s. After the war, Foote went into private practice in California as Chief of General Surgical Services at Kern General Hospital in Bakersfield, California, before becoming Senior Attending Surgeon until 1959. Later in his civilian career, Foote taught at Loma Linda University College of Medicine until 1972. Foote also worked for the California Medical Association until his retirement in 1989.