Biographical history
Born in Dresden, Germany, Horst Oertel immigrated to the United States at the age of fourteen. In 1894 he earned his M.D. from Yale University, and continued with postgraduate studies in pathology at the Universities of Berlin, Leipzig and Wurzburg until 1898. On his return to the United States, he was appointed director of the Russell Institute of Pathology in New York. He later undertook a period of study at Guy's Hospital, London. Oertel came to McGill in 1914 and retired as Emeritus Professor of pathology in 1938. Oertel passed away in 1956.