Nathaniel D. Yingling was born January 8, 1923, at the Clearfield Hospital. He was the son of David A. and Besse Neff Yingling.

Dr. Yingling received his schooling in the Clearfield County Schools, graduating from Clearfield High School in the Class of 1940. Following High School, he attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, and he received his B.S. degree in 1943.

After college, during the World War II years, Dr. Yingling was chosen to enter the ASTP program and was sent for Army training. At the end of the training he enrolled as a Medical Student at Jefferson Medical College. He remained in the Army as a PFC until he graduated from Medical School in 1947.  In 1947 and 1948, he was an Intern at Jefferson Hospital.

In 1948, Dr. Yingling joined Dr. J. Hayes Woolridge, a prominent Surgeon at Clearfield Hospital. He continued working with Dr. Woolridge until 1951 when he was commissioned a Captain in the Army and sent to Germany as Regimental Surgeon.

His marriage to Ruth Howe took place on February 11, 1950, which was the beginning of the family of boys that followed; they had five in all, who appeared on the scene from 1950 to 1956.

After almost two years in Germany, he and his family headed for Nashville, Tennessee, where he enrolled in a Surgical Residency Program conducted by the Vanderbilt University at the Veterans' Hospital. The residency continued until 1956, when he became board eligible and was soon to be Board Certified in General Surgery. 

His Surgical Career was spent at the Clearfield Hospital, twenty-two of those years as Chief of Surgery.

Dr. Yingling was a member of the American College of Surgeons. He retired in the fall of 1986 and passed away on November 18, 1998, at the age of 75.