John Addison Fordyce was born on 16 February 1858 in Guernsey County, Ohio.

[1] He graduated in 1881 with a degree in medicine from the Chicago Medical College, and subsequently completed his junior posts at the Cook County Hospital in Chicago.

[1][2] In Paris he studied under Jean Alfred Fournier, Émile Vidal and Ernest Besnier.

[1] He returned to the States and settled down in New York, where he was a specialist in dermatology and syphilis.

[3] These came to be referred to as Fordyce spots and were found to be only normal sebaceous glands.