Encyclopedia Of Detroit
Pitcher, Dr. Zina
Dr. Zina Pitcher was twice mayor of Detroit, founded the University of Michigan’s medical school and served as one of its first regents. A prominent doctor in Michigan, he promoted a public school system for Detroit and was widely respected as a botanist.
Pitcher was born on April 12, 1797 in upstate New York’s Washington County. As a boy, he explored the fields and forests along the Hudson River, sparking a lifelong interest in botany. He was schooled locally, then began a study of medicine when he was 22. He attended Castleton Medical College and graduated with an M.D. from Vermont’s Middlebury College in 1822.
He then served 15 years as assistant surgeon, then surgeon in the U.S. Army, traveling around the country - including the Great Lakes Region - always observing nature and plant life and learning about Native American use of plants. In 1836 after resigning his commission he settled in Detroit, opening a private practice.
Dr. Pitcher rapidly rose to prominence in the growing town, becoming a regent of the burgeoning University of Michigan in 1837, and mayor of Detroit from 1840-41, then again in 1843. He served four, four-year terms as a U of M regent, where he planned the university’s medical school and became emeritus professor on the medical faculty. Decrying Detroit’s poor school system, he enlisted the Detroit Common Council to persuade the Michigan legislature to pass a law to establish free public education in the city.
Among his other titles and responsibilities, he was Wayne County physician in 1845 and Detroit city physician in 1847. When the American Medical Association met in Detroit in 1856, he was elected president. He was a founder of the Detroit Medical Society in 1852, and also served as president of the Michigan State Medical Society from 1855-56.
Among his botanical achievements is identifying the Pitcher’s thistle, a pink-white flowering plant seen around Great Lakes’ shorelines.
In 1871 Pitcher retired from medicine. He died on April 5, 1872 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
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