Dr. Thomas J. Holbrook pioneered neuroscience in Huntington, establishing the city's first neurosurgical practice and serving as Chief of Neurology and Neurosurgery at St. Mary's Hospital for nearly a decade.

Born May 4, 1917, in Redbush, Kentucky, he earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry in 1937 at the University of Kentucky, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Alpha Theta honor societies. He graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1941. At Vanderbilt, he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha honor society.

Dr. Holbrook began his residency in Neurological Surgery at Vanderbilt in 1941, but as World War II raged the nation desperately needed military doctors. He answered his country's call, leaving Vanderbilt and enlisting in the Army Medical Corps. From 1944 to 1946, he was Chief of Neurological Surgery at Newton D. Baker Army Hospital in Martinsburg, West Virginia. After the war, he returned to Vanderbilt and completed his residency there in 1948. Certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1949, he would practice in Huntington for the next 38 years.

At St. Mary's, Dr. Holbrook was Chief of Neurology and Neurosurgery from 1961 to 1970, established the hospital's original unit in electroencephalography in 1951 and was president of the medical staff in 1964.

Recognized as a medical scholar, he served as Associate Editor of the West Virginia State Medical Journal, writing editorials and reviewing scientific articles submitted for publication. His own articles appeared in Surgery and Archives of Surgery. He was a founding member of the American Board of Electroencephalography, the Neurosurgical Society of America and the Neurosurgical Society of West Virginia.

Dr. Holbrook had a lifelong interest in the education of others. This resulted in his serving for many years on the Medical Scholarship Committee of the West Virginia State Medical Association and the Board of Directors of St. Mary's Hospital School of Nursing, and prompted him to lend strong support to establishing the Marshall University School of Medicine.

Dr. Holbrook died January 15, 2004, in West Columbia, South Carolina.