Menninger, Charles Frederick (1862–1953)

US physician. Inspired by the Mayo clinic he had visited, he founded a clinic in Topeka, Kansas, which was originally designed to treat a range of basic medical problems. When his son, Karl, joined him in 1919, the Menninger Clinic began to shift its focus to psychiatric cases. His other son, William, joined the Clinic in 1925 and it soon became one of the premier psychiatric hospitals in the USA. In 1914 the three of them formed the Menninger Foundation to support training, research, and other programs in the field of psychiatry.

Charles Menninger was born in Tell City, Indiana. He taught a variety of subjects, including German and physics, before getting a degree in homeopathic medicine in 1887, then studied for an MD in conventional medicine in 1908.