George William Stanley Ish was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on October 28, 1883 to Jefferson G. Ish and Marietta Ish, who were both educators. He received two bachelor's degrees, the first from Talladega College in Alabama (1903) and the second from Yale (1905). He then received a medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1909. Following graduation, he worked at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington (now Howard University Hospital), and then returned to practice in Little Rock. There he worked in both Black and white hospitals, and contributed to the founding of the United Friends Hospital, the J.E. Bush Memorial Hospital, and the McRae Memorial Tuberculosis Sanatorium, all of which served Black patients. In 1940, he took graduate courses at the University of Michigan. He married twice, to Lillie Johnson in 1915, with whom he had four children, and following her death, to Ercell Tucker, in 1941. He died on March 15, 1970 and was buried in Little Rock. His brother, Jefferson Ish, is also a graduate of Yale College.
Image citation: Yale College Class of 1905 class book, Yale University Library