Victor F. Cullen

Victor F. Cullen was born in Funkstown, Maryland on September 5, 1881. His early schooling was in Washington County public schools and at Rock Hill College in Ellicott City. In 1906, he received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Following graduation, Dr. Cullen worked as a resident surgeon at St. Joseph’s Hospital.

His initial interest in the State Tuberculosis Sanitorium at Sabillasville was in 1908 when he visited after having been a patient at a similar hospital in Williamsport, Maryland. Dr. Cullen found Sabillasville to be a primitive cluster of shacks and an administrative building on 198 acres. He offered his services and became the superintendent in 1909.

Under his leadership, the hospital complex grew to include patient cottages and wards, staff residences, a railroad stop and post office, a store for patients and staff, an entertainment pavilion, a school, a working farm and other facilities necessary to make the hospital complex more akin to a self-sufficient and self-contained village. 

In addition, as the patient population peaked at more than 500, Dr. Cullen opened a nursing school to specifically train young women to work with tuberculosis sufferers. He was leader in the fight against tuberculosis for more than 40 years. He and the hospital grew together. After his mandatory retirement at age 65 as superintendent of all of Maryland’s tuberculosis sanatoriums, the hospital at Sabilliasville was named for him.

Dr. Cullen’s relationship with his colleagues, patients and public officials was significant in the success and effectiveness of his work. He was elected President of the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland in 1939.

Dr. Cullen died of a stroke at age 67 of a stroke at his house in Baltimore, on March 9, 1949.