First Female Licensed Physician in Waco
The name “Earle” is likely familiar to Baylor students who have seen the name emblazoned on Earle Residence Hall in East Village, but the deep imprint that the building’s namesake left upon Baylor and Waco may not be as widely known.
Dr. Harriet “Hallie” Earle was born in a log house near Waco on Sept. 27, 1880. She came from a long line of physicians — a heritage she would continue. Earle enrolled at Baylor at the age of 17 and quickly demonstrated her insatiable love of learning, taking so many science and math classes that she gained the moniker “Dr. Earle” as an undergraduate. Her reputation went as high as the then-Baylor President Oscar H. Cooper, who called her math skills greater than all other students.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1901, Earle completed a Master of Science at Baylor just one year later. Her master’s thesis was so well-received that it was placed in the cornerstone of Baylor’s Carroll Science Building while it was under construction, where the document purportedly still remains.
Not content to stop in her education in medicine, Earle taught in Gainesville, Texas, for three years to earn an income while awaiting entrance to the Baylor University Medical School in Dallas. In 1907, with a GPA that held the record for the highest for years, Earle set another milestone by becoming the first female graduate of the Baylor College of Medicine. She went on to complete postgraduate work in Chicago, New Orleans and New York.
After setting a new standard, Earle returned to Waco in 1915 to open her own physician’s office in the landmark ALICO building as the first licensed female physician in Waco. She oriented her practice around women, serving both paying and non-paying patients and assisting with medical examinations of Baylor’s female students. After nearly three decades of practicing medicine, Earle retired in 1948.
Medicine wasn’t the only arena in which Earle made a name for herself. She shared a passion for meteorology with her father, Isham Earle, who had begun keeping local weather records in 1879. Earle continued the daily observation records after her father retired in 1916, and the United States Weather Bureau named her a Cooperative Weather Observer — the only weather observer in Central Texas at this time. In 1960, Earle once again was recognized for her incredible accomplishments, this time with the John Campanius Holm Award from the United States Weather Bureau.
Dr. Earle passed away on Nov. 1, 1963, but her legacy lives on today. In 1996, the Texas Historical Commission placed a marker on her grave in Waco’s Oakwood Cemetery to acknowledge her many achievements and contributions to the Waco community. Her alma mater, Baylor, also honored her legacy by naming Hallie Earle Residential Hall for her — a fitting name for the home of Baylor’s Science and Health Living Learning Center. Moreover, the Earle family papers — including her weather journals and diaries — are preserved in Baylor’s Texas Collection, further cementing her impact on the University’s and our State's history.
Earle’s accomplishments and excellence in her varied passions set her apart as a monumental icon of Baylor’s mission. From the cornerstone of the Carroll Science Building to a residence hall bearing her name, Baylor proudly bears the impressions Earle made on her community.