Stella Yates Botelho, M.D. (b. 1919) is an alumnus of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (M.D. 1949) and the University of Pennsylvania (A.B. 1940). She specialized in the field of physiology and had a distinguished career as a researcher and teacher.

Stella Botelho was born in Tokyo, Japan, to parents Francis Martin Botelho (1893-1967) and Emily Yates Evans Botelho (1893-1977). She and her brother Eugene George Evans Botelho (1916-1999) moved to the United States with their mother in 1920; their father followed a year later in 1921. The family settled in Delaware and later Pennsylvania, in close proximity to other members of the Evans family on her mother’s side. Neither Stella nor her brother Gene married.

Stella’s mother Emily descends from several prominent families (Yates, Long, Saylor) of Charleston, South Carolina, who moved north to Wilmington, Delaware before the Civil War. Emily’s grandmother, Joanna Yates married Englishman William Joseph Evans in Delaware. Their son, William Holbeck Evans, was a pharmacist who settled in Japan at the end of the 19th century. He married Joana Duval (d. 1902), also known as Tom Yoh Hee, an American citizen born in Macao, China. William Evans adopted Joana’s son Thomas Hayller Evans (b. 1889), who was born in China, and together they had two additional children, Emily Yates Evans and William Holbeck Evans, Jr. (1895-1951), who were both born in Japan.

Stella’s father’s family also has strong ties to East Asia. Her father Francis Martin Botelho was born in Hong Kong to Eugene Procolo Botelho and Anna da Esperança (dates unknown for both). Francis claimed Portuguese heritage and citizenship. Evidence also suggests the family had Asian roots, possibly tracing to the Portuguese colonial city of Macao, China. Several family members ran the international export and shipping business Botelho Bros. based in Hong Kong, with offices in Shanghai and San Francisco, among others. Francis worked in the machine tool industry in both China and Japan before settling in the United States where he worked primarily as a linguist and language teacher.

Stella Botelho attended Wayne Elementary School, Wayne Grammar School and Radnor High School, in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where she graduated in 1936. She was a Girl Scout, a member of the National Honor Society, and participated in glee club, debate team, school plays, the school newspaper, and was editor-in-chief of her high school yearbook, The Album. She also excelled in athletics, lettering in tennis, swimming, basketball, and hockey.

Botelho began her studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 1936 where she majored in chemistry in the College of Liberal Arts for Women. She was editor of the Freshman Handbook and business manager of the Record Book. Continuing her interest in sports, Stella participated in swimming and was captain of the women’s tennis team. She was a member of the Beta chapter of Zeta Phi medical fraternity and was president of Alpha Omicron Pi women’s fraternity. She was presented with a Senior Leadership award and graduated in 1940.

Botelho was admitted to Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1940 and received her M.D. in 1949. During the course of her medical school studies she contracted tuberculosis and spent over a year at Eagleville Sanatorium (1942-1943). She attended Woman’s Medical College from 1940-1942, 1943-1944, and 1946-1949, making her a member of the classes of 1944, 1946 and 1949. During medical school Botelho was a summer volunteer at Friends Hospital (1940, 1941). She was a research assistant in the Department of Physiology at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine (1945-1946) and was a pre-doctoral research fellow in the Department of Physiology in the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (1946-1948). After graduation, she completed her medical internship at Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 1951-1954.

Botelho’s first professional position at the University of Pennsylvania was an appointment as Instructor in Physiology (Graduate School of Medicine) in 1949. She was appointed Associate in Physiology and Pharmacology (Graduate School of Medicine) in 1950, Assistant Professor of Physiology (Graduate School of Medicine) in 1954, Associate Professor of Physiology (School of Medicine) in 1957, and Professor of Physiology (Medical School and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences) in 1969. She was named Professor Emeritus in 1981. She also held visiting appointments at Cambridge University (1957-1958), the University of Panama (1976), and Hokkaido University (1977).

At the University of Pennsylvania Botelho taught courses in applied and medical physiology and she maintained an active research lab, studying respiratory physiology, neuromuscular physiology, the spinal cord, and secretion of exocrine glands. In the course of her career she published over 40 scientific articles in the field of physiology and was the principal investigator on numerous scientific grants. She mentored dozens of pre- and post-doctoral students, many of whom she kept in touch with as they went on to have distinguished careers in medicine.

Botelho received many awards over the course of her career, including the Alumni Achievement Award from Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania (1962), the Alumni Award of Merit from the University of Pennsylvania (1968), admission as a Fellow into the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (1974), and the Commonwealth Board Award of the Medical College of Pennsylvania (1982). Upon her retirement from the University of Pennsylvania, her portrait was painted for the Medical School portrait gallery by Edgar Eckfeldt (1915-2012).

Botelho maintained an active correspondence and close personal friendship with fellow doctor Robert Nims (1917-2009) during the 1950s. She also corresponded with the author Louise E. Dew (1871-1962), who was a friend of the Botelho family.

In addition to her time spent abroad in medical positions, Botelho made several trips for pleasure to western and eastern Europe, the Indian subcontinent, and east Asia. In the United States she traveled to the west coast and to the southwest, where her brother Gene Botelho served as an Episcopal priest to Native American populations. She was involved in nature and zoological causes and enjoyed photography, cooking and entertaining.

(Information from internal evidence and local sources. Also: Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad, 1835-1974 for Joana Evans on Ancestry.com and U.S., Consular Registration Certificates, 1907 – 1918 for William Holbeck Evans on Ancestry.com.)