Dr. Walter Stuart McClellan was born in the township of Kortright, Delaware County, New York on September 7, 1895. He was the son of Mary and William McClellan. Growing up in a small, rural community, Dr. McClellan had few opportunities for social contact. At the age of thirteen, he contracted osteomyelitis and was hospitalized for a year. When he returned home from the hospital, the family moved to Schenevus, NY in order that he could attend high school.

Dr. McClellan entered Colgate University in 1912 and it was there that he met his future wife, Helen Salisbury. Graduating from Colgate in 1916, Dr. McClellan obtained a position as a teacher and principal of a combined elementary and high school. In 1918, he was inducted into the Army and was assigned to the Chemical Warfare Research Unit. Upon his discharge, he entered Harvard to study pre-med. Working a variety of jobs, he worked his way throughout the program, paying for all his own expenses.

Following graduation, he spent two years studying at Massachusetts General Hospital and ultimately completed his medical residency at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. In 1926, he was named a Research Fellow at the Russell Sage Institute of Pathology at Bellevue Hospital. While attending his college’s tenth reunion, he proposed to Helen and they were subsequently married in August of 1926. Dr. McClellan remained at the Russell Sage Institute for six years and simultaneously served as an instructor in Medicine at Cornell University Medical School.

In 1931, he was named as the Medical Director for the newly organized Spa at Saratoga Springs, NY. He and his family spent the first two years of his tenure in this position, touring Europe studying spas. Ultimately, they came to live in Saratoga Springs in 1933.

Both Dr. McClellan and his wife, Helen, were very active in the community. At varying times, he served as an Elder at the Presbyterian Church and was Superintendent of the Sunday School. He served as director of the Rotary Club, the YMCA and the Library. In addition, he held the rank of Associate Professor at Albany Medical College and was a consultant at the Saratoga Hospital, the State Veteran’s Rest Camp at Mt. McGregor and was Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the Saratoga V.A. Hospital. He was president of the Saratoga County Medical Society, the American Congress of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and was a member of the American Physiological Association. He was also the author of over eighty-one publications.

Following his retirement from the Saratoga Spa, he and his wife moved to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to be closer to their daughters, Nancy Brooks and Laura Montry. Helen McClellan died on October 1, 1974; Walter Stuart McClellan died on November 6, 1974, just a little over a month after his beloved Helen. They were buried in Hamilton, New York.