John Staige Davis (1872-1946) was America's first surgeon to dedicate his practice solely to plastic surgery. Davis served as Captain in the Medical Corps of the U. S. Army during World War I. During World War II he was appointed by the Surgeon General of the U. S. Army as a member of a committee to organize plastic surgery units for the Army Medical Corps. He spent many years of his life working to establish specialized divisions within the practice of plastic surgery, and in 1916 he contributed a landmark paper to Journal of the American Medical Association which described the role of plastic surgery within the medical establishment, again emphasizing the importance of specialization within the field. In I9I9, he published a book, "Plastic Surgery: Its Principles and Practice,". From 1923 until his death, Davis served as Associate Professor of Surgery in the Johns Hopkins University in charge of Plastic Surgery. He died peacefully in his sleep.