Dr. Hurd was born in Union City, Michigan, and received his A.B. (1963) and M.D. (1866) from the University of Michigan. Dr. Hurd became an assistant physician at the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Asylum for the Insane (1870), assistant superintendent in 1878, and shortly after, named the first superintendent of the newly opened Eastern Michigan Asylum in Pontiac. Johns Hopkins Hospital opened in 1889, and the trustees chose Dr. Hurd to be the first superintendent and professor of Psychiatry. He held the position for 22 years but remained as secretary to the hospital board. Dr. Hurd served as the inaugural editor of the Johns Hopkins Bulletin in 1889 and also edited the Johns Hopkins Hospital Reports. His administrative and editorial skills helped to build the hospital’s reputation.
Dr. Hurd’s best-known literary effort was to edit the massive four-volume Institutional Care of the Insane in the United States and Canada (1916), describing the history of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane and the American Journal of Insanity.
Dr. Hurd was President of the Academy of Medicine (1906) and the American Hospital Association (1912), and served as Editor of the Journal Hospital Modern from 1913–20. Dr. Hurd was Secretary (1892–97) and President of the American Medico-Psychological Association (1898–99).