Mayo, Charles Horace (1865-1939)

US physician. As a surgeon, his specialities were the thyroid, the nervous system, and eye operations; he was also known for reducing the death rate in goitre surgery. With his brother, William Mayo, he established the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research in 1915, to which they donated large sums of money. He became a professor of surgery at the University of Minnesota's Mayo Graduate School of Medicine (1915-36).

Mayo was born in Rochester, Minnesota. After gaining his MD from Chicago Medical College in 1888, he joined his father and older brother, William, in founding the clinic at St Mary's Hospital in Rochester. He was health officer of Rochester from 1912-37 and served in the US armed forces during World War I.