Walter Earl Barton  Walter Earl Barton, M.D. (1906–1999) was an American physician, a psychiatric administrator, and a leader in American psychiatry. Barton was born in Oak Park, Illinois and grew up in Elmshurst, Illinois where he attended the public schools. During high school he suffered a leg injury and infection playing football, which led to his interest in becoming a physician. In school, he played the trombone and edited the year book. Barton attended college at the University of Illinois and upon graduation entered the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He earned his M.D. in 1931. He wrote his thesis on S. Weir Mitchell, a prominent neurologist and psychiatrist. He had planned to study obstetrics, but when he interned at the West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, Illinois, he was persuaded to spend one year in psychiatry. He was recommended to practice at the Worcester State Mental Hospital in Massachusetts and he stayed there until 1942, first as a psychiatric resident then as assistant superintendent. The superintendent of the Worcester State Mental Hospital then was William Bryan, a physician who wrote the first book on psychiatric administration. Barton wrote his first publication in 1934 on pericardial hemorrhage in scurvy. Barton began his military career in 1937, when he joined the Army National Guard. He also began teaching at the Smith College School of Social Work. In 1938, he spent a year at the National Hospital, Queens Square in London to study neurology, and then returned to Worcester State Mental Hospital to train as an administrator under Bryan. In 1942, his National Guard unit was mobilized but he was declared essential medical personnel and stayed at the hospital. Later that year, he worked at the Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital in Washington, DC (now Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland) then assigned to the Valley Forge General Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which was under construction. He complained about the construction of the psychiatric unit. His criticism of the rehabilitation activities in the U.S. Army led to his assignment in an occupational therapy unit of the Army and to develop rehabilitation programs for the blind and deaf. He also helped develop the Army's Reconditioning Program. His work in the army earned him the Legion of Merit Medal. Barton wanted an overseas assignment and was sent to Leyte in the Philippines as a commanding officer of a station medical hospital. In 1945, he was soon brought back at the request of the Governor of Massachusetts to be superintendent of the Boston State Hospital.