Benjamin Rush PORTRAYED BY BOB GLEASON
Signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia dedicated his life to the ideals of Life and Liberty while truly embracing the Constitutional ideal of forming the Nation he loved into a “…more perfect Union…”.
As an ardent American Patriot, Rush urged Thomas Paine to write a pro-independence pamphlet using simple language that the common person could understand and even gave Paine the title for his tract: Common Sense. Rush was the first professor of chemistry in America and having an active medical practice, he served as Surgeon General for the Revolutionary Army where he was required to find solutions quickly and under extreme circumstances.
During his extraordinary life, Dr. Benjamin Rush consistently put his considerable ingenuity and resources to work for the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised. As an ardent abolitionist. He published his anti-slavery views, helped organize the first anti-slavery society in America, and became the society’s first president. Believing that Women had an important role in the New Republic, Rush would champion the cause of women’s education and was instrumental in forming the first women's institution of higher education in Philadelphia: The Young Ladies' Academy of Philadelphia. Benjamin Rush instituted many reforms in the care of the mentally ill while serving as senior physician at Pennsylvania Hospital and became known as the Father of Psychiatry. Never one to run away from difficult situations, as a physician and humanitarian, Rush put his own life at risk and stayed in Philadelphia during the Yellow Fever epidemic, caring for the poor, tending the sick.
Bob Gleason: Bio Actor/Historian, Interpreter, Reenactor, Impersonator