Earnest J. Lutz

EARNEST J. LUTZ, M. D. - Established in the active practice of his profession in Kansas City, the metropolis and judicial center of Wyandotte county, Dr. Lutz is recognized as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of this section of the state, and with a thoroughness characteristic of his race he has availed himself of the best advantages for the broadening of his intellectual and professional powers, with the result that there are few physicians better equipped in scientific and practical knowledge. A man of fine intellectuality, gracious presence and sterling integrity, Dr. Lutz has gained a specially secure place in the confidence and esteem of the community in which he has elected to establish his home and engage in the beneficent work of his exacting vocation.

Earnest Joseph Lutz was born in Germersheim, Rhenish Bavaria, Germany, on the 18th of November, 1865, and is a son of Christian and Barbara (Diehl) Lutz, both of whom were likewise born and reared in the German Palitinate, with whose history the names of the respective families have been long and prominently identified. Christian Lutz was a skilled physician and surgeon and served as surgeon in the German army in the Franco-Prussian war. His death occurred several years later, as the direct result of injuries received while serving in this great conflict. His widow still resides in Germany, and of the three children Dr. Earnest J., of this review, is the only one in America; Max is manager of the business of the Standard Oil Company in the city of Hamburg; and Adolph is cashier for the South German Discounts Association at Landau Pfalz, Bavaria.

To the excellent schools of his native land Dr. Earnest J. Lutz is indebted for his early educational discipline, which included course in the Latin school and the gymnasium, corresponding to the high schools of the United States. He began the study of medicine in the great and historic Heidelberg University, in which he continued his studies until 1887, when he severed the ties that bound him to home and fatherland and came to America. For two years he was employed as chemist and pharmacist for the Schmeltzer Drug Company, of Kansas City, Kansas, whither he came soon after his arrival in the United States, and he then went to the city of St. Louis, Missouri, were he entered the College of Physicians & Surgeons, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1891 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He then returned to Kansas City and engaged in the practice of his profession and here he also held the position of police surgeon in 1893-4, in which latter year he returned to his native land and entered the medical department of Heidelberg University, where he took an effective post-graduate course, as did he also in one of the great medical institutions in the city of Berlin. He returned to America in the autumn of 1896 and resumed the work of his profession in Kansas City. Here he became a valued member of the faculty of the Medico-Chirurgical College, and he retained this position until the institution was removed to Kansas City, Missouri. He was dean of the faculty and held the chair of internal medicine. After resigning his position with this institution the Doctor became professor of internal medicine in the College of Physicians & Surgeons, in Kansas City, an institution that was later merged with others to form the medical department of the University of Kansas. This department is located at Rosedale, a virtual suburb of Kansas City, and Dr. Lutz has been incumbent of the chair of internal medicine since 1905. He has been most successful in the educational work of his profession and is one of the most valued and popular members of the faculty of the well ordered institution mentioned. He holds membership in the Wyandotte County Medical Society, the Kansas State Medical Society, the Southwestern Medical Association, and the American Medical Association. He has continued a close student of both medicine and surgery, has done a large amount of original research work and has made many valuable contributions to both the standard and periodical literature of his profession. He has served as president of the Wyandotte County Medical Society and is one of its most influential and active members.

Though thoroughly loyal and public-spirited as a citizen and ever ready to lend his cooperation in the furtherance of progressive civic enterprises, Dr. Lutz has found neither time nor desire for public office. He gives, however, a stanch allegiance to the Republican party and takes a lively interest in the questions and issues of the day. He has been a most appreciative student of the noble teachings of the time-honored Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained to distinguished precedence, as may be seen when it is stated that he has not only received the thirty-third and ultimate degree of te[sic] Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, but is also one of the few in America to be enrolled as a member of the Royal Order of Scotland. Dr. Lutz has been one of the most active and influential factors in the work of the Masonic fraternity in his home city, where his affiliations are as here noted: Wyandotte Lodge, No. 3, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Wyandotte Chapter, No. 6, Royal Arch Masons; Ivanhoe Commandery, No. 21, Knights Templars; Caswell Consistory, No. 5, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite; and Ararat Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He is president of the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple Association of Kansas City and was one of the most influential in effecting the erection of the fine temple in this city. He also holds membership in the Knights of Pythias, the Order of Ben Hur, the Woodmen of America, and the Knights of Maccabees, of which last he was the chief organizer in Kansas.

On the 24th of November, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Lutz to Miss Ida Braecklein, daughter of Dr. Frank Braecklein, a representative physician and surgeon of Concordia, Missouri, and the two children of this union are Irma and Herbert.