Horton Bellwether is originally from Dorchester, Massachusetts. His father was a schoolteacher, his mother a homemaker. He has one younger sister. A quiet, introverted child, he excelled in school. His mindset was one of seeing education as an opportunity not to be wasted, so he put his all into it. Upon graduation from Rutherford B. Hayes High School, he was accepted to Columbia University on a merit scholarship, where he completed a B.Sc. in Pre-Medical Studies. During his time at Columbia, he boxed and was involved in Track and Field. Upon graduation, Summa Cum Laude, he was accepted to Harvard Medical School in a joint M.D./Ph.D program. He completed the five-year program in four years, and returned to New York City, where he did a two-year intensive psychiatry residence at Bellevue.
When the US entered WWI, he volunteered to join the Army as a doctor, doing double-duty as both an emergency physician, and a psychiatrist, helping 'shell-shocked' soldiers. While stationed at a field hospital in France, he was on duty one night when a British fighter plane crashed just outside of the hospital's perimeter in a line of trees. He ran to see if the pilot could be aided, and saw that it was too late, the young man having sustained terrible bodily injury in the crash.
What struck him as odd, though, is that the young pilot's head and face were undamaged, and his facial expression was one of utter horror, the likes of which Horton had never seen before. Just then, the remaining gas and oil in the engine ignited, and the resultant flash of fire severely burned Horton, who was taken back to the hospital. It was not thought that he was going to live, but he did, making a slow recovery. When he was well enough, the Army discharged him, with a few medals and a meritorious promotion to the rank of Captain, and sent him back to the US.
He took up a teaching position, and began to volunteer time aiding soldiers back from the war in both individual and group therapy sessions. His burn scars, which were permanent, served to let the soldiers know that he had been where they had been, and had seen terrible things, too, so they had an easier time opening up to him.
Some of his patients, the ones who could not re-enter society successfully, are in long-term care facilities, and he considers it an important duty to follow-up with them and remain at least peripherally aware of their standard of care.
