Dr. Hutchings was born in Clinton, Georgia. He was educated at Middle Georgia Military School, a junior college, spent a year at Georgia University, then entered Bellevue Hospital (NY) Medical College, receiving his M.D. in 1891. He interned at Almshouse Hospital in New York City, after which he was appointed to the City Asylum. In 1892, he became a staff physician at St. Lawrence State Hospital in northern New York, later becoming superintendent in 1903, at the age of 34.
He had successes during his tenure. He demonstrated that ice from the St. Lawrence River had caused typhoid at his hospital. He established a community outpatient clinic at the hospital in 1909. He established habit training for deteriorated patients, and he was particularly interested in the training of state hospital nurses and helped to organize the Central Training School for Nurses.
During WWI, Dr. Hutchings was on active duty in the U.S. Army, serving in the Surgeon General’s Office and later in the army hospital at Plattsburgh Barracks, NY. After the war, he returned to St. Lawrence and, in 1919, was appointed Superintendent at Utica. A new hospital was to be built at Marcy, and Dr. Hutchings directed the construction and development of Marcy until 1931, when it became a separate hospital. He was a clinical professor of psychiatry at Syracuse University Medical School and later an emeritus professor.
Among his publications is the Psychiatric Ward Book, which had six editions. In 1933, he became editor of the Psychiatric Quarterly Journal, the publication of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene. He was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Syracuse University Medical School, later Emeritus Professor.
Dr. Hutchings served as President of the American Psychiatric Association (1938–39).