William Cline Borden (May 9, 1858 – August 18, 1934) was an American surgeon who was a key planner behind the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Borden was also dean of the School of Medicine at George Washington University. According to the medical center website, Borden "was the initiator, planner and effective mover for the creation, location, and first congressional support of the medical center." For this reason, it is still referred to today as "Borden's dream." Biography William Cline Borden was born on May 19, 1858, in Watertown, New York, to parents Daniel J. Borden and Mary Louisa Cline. He attended schools in Watertown and the Adams Collegiate Institute in Adams, New York. Borden graduated from George Washington University with an M.D. and was commissioned into the United States Army as a lieutenant and assistant surgeon in 1883. He married Jennie E. Adams on October 23, 1883. Five years later he was promoted to the rank of captain. During the Spanish–American War he was promoted to major and commanded a Division Hospital in Key West. Borden published the papers "An Extemporized Section Flattener" (1887) and "The Origin and Development of the Fat Cell of the Frog" (1899). In 1898 Borden, at the time a major, became commandant and operating surgeon of the U.S. Army General Hospital Washington Barracks. In autumn 1901 he was made an instructor at the Army Medical School. He was interested in bacteriology and histology, published an article on "Practical Photomicrography by Use of the Oil Lamp" and experimented with early X-ray machines, writing the first textbook about X-rays in America in 1899. Borden was promoted to the rank of major brigade surgeon in 1898; he would reach major surgeon in 1908. In 1901 Borden lectured at the Columbian Medical College of George Washington University. Borden was also an early advocate of McBurney muscle-splitting. Walter Reed and later life By 1902, Borden was convinced that Washington needed a new, bigger, hospital. The one he had operated since 1898 was overcrowded and in poor condition. He also considered medical instruction facilities "poor". When Borden's friend Walter Reed died in Borden's care in 1902, Borden began to advocate heavily for the establishment of an army general hospital named after Reed. He envisioned that this center would be a combination of the Army Medical School, Army Medical Museum, the library of the Surgeon General of the United States and