William James Ayling (1858-1924) and William Elmer Ayling (1893-1984) were a father and son who graduated from the Syracuse University College of Medicine in 1882 and 1918, respectively. WJA was born on July 30, 1858 in Syracuse and attended SU between 1879 and 1882. He left Syracuse to be a graduate student at St. Thomas Hospital in London from 1882 to 1884 and returned to be a physician beginning in 1884. He was secretary of the Syracuse Medical Association in 1886 and 1887 and a physician to the Free Dispensary. He married Carrie M. Weller of Cicero, New York in 1884 with whom he had three children: Nellie Louise, James S., and William Elmer. Later in life, he was dean of the medical examiners for the Marine Corps and died on June 14, 1924.

WEA was born on June 18, 1893 in Syracuse. He attended SU for 6 years to complete a combination of courses in Liberal Arts and Medicine and became a member of Alpha Kappa Kappa and Sigma Phi Epsilon. After receiving a BS in Medicine in 1916 and a Doctor of Medicine in 1918, he interned at the Methodist Episcopal Hospital of Brooklyn from 1918 to 1920. He served as a private in the enlisted medical reserve corps of the US Army from 1917 to 1919 and as 1st Lieutenant in the Medical Officers Reserve Corps of the US Army between 1924 and 1928. He married Marion Ruth Billings and had two children, Robert W. Ayling and Donald C. Ayling, whom both became engineers and served in World War II. From 1935 to 1937, he taught hygiene and sanitation at the SU College of Medicine. He was associate professor of public health between 1937 and 1947 and clinical associate professor of public health from 1950 to 1957. Beginning in 1923, he was the chief medical examiner for the schools, and by 1939, he was the director of the health program in the city’s private and parochial schools and the director of city school health services between 1939 and 1963. He received the Howe Award from the American School Health Association, the annual Community Medal from the Rotary Club in 1966, and a citation in 1969 by the American Public Health Association for 40 years of public health service. He was a Fellow of the American Medical Association, Fellow of the American Public Health Association, Fellow and President of the American School Health Association in 1949, President of the Medical Society of the State of New York, President of the New York State Association of School Physicians, President of the Onondaga County Medical Society, President of the Syracuse Academy of Medicine, Diplomat of the American Board of Preventive Medicine in Public Health, President of the Rotary Club, President of the Onondaga Health Association, Secretary of the Syracuse Academy of Medicine from 1920 to 1925, and President and Secretary of the Syracuse Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution. He died on February 6, 1984.