Psychiatry is now being recognized … and the work of the psychiatrist has been extended into all branches of medicine.
Dr. Gayle was born in Norfolk, Virginia, received his M.D. (1915) from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, and interned at the Orthopedic Hospital Infirmary for Nervous Diseases and the Municipal Hospital, both in Philadelphia.
Dr. Gayle enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1917, and served in France and in the Army of Occupation in Germany. After the war, he entered into a partnership with Dr. Tucker, which lasted until 1929. He was in private practice and served as a consultant in psychiatry and neurology at a number of hospitals in the Richmond area, including the Veterans Administration.
After 1919, Dr. Gayle taught at the Medical College of Virginia, and in 1937, he was appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department. That year, he was also appointed to the State Hospital Board.
Dr. Gayle served as President of the Southern Psychiatric Association, the Virginia Neuropsychiatric Society, the Richmond Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the Academy of Neurology, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a member of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease, the American Medical Association, and the American Neurological Association.
Dr. Gayle served as Secretary of the American Psychiatric Association for four years and President (1955–56).