In Memoriam
1940 - 1949
Scroll down to see obituaries, which appear in order of DMS class year. To go directly to any individual obituary, click on the name here, listed in alphabetical order.
Lee E. Bartholomew, DMS '48
Charles W. Clarke, Jr., DMS '43
John L. Crenshaw, Jr. DMS '43
James Dana Darnley, DMS '41
Forbes Delany, DMS '43
Arthur B. French, DMS '41
Rowland B. French, DMS '42
David W. Heusinkveld, Jr., DMS '49
Eugene L. Hoch, DMS '43
Robert A. Hoekelman, '48
Melvin F. Johnson, Jr., DMS '45
Robert C. Joy, DMS '49
David D. Kirkpatrick, Jr., '45
Amos R. Little, DMS '40
Harvey N. Mandell, DMS '48
Eddy D. Palmer, DMS '42
Fred Plum, DMS '45
Robert C. Rainie, '42
George L. Rider, '43
James W. Robinson, DMS '43, HS 1949-1950
Norman W. Saunders, DMS '48
Morris J. Seligman, DMS '40
Berthold E. Schwarz, DMS '45
William Sinclair, Jr., '41
William M. Stahl, Jr., '44
Albert M. Storrs, '44
Sterling B. Suddarth, ‘45
John Wesley Tope III, DMS '44
John C. Tower, DMS '49
R. Robert Tyson, DMS '43
Guy W. Van Syckle, ‘45
Franklin H. West, DMS '43
Robert D. Wiley, DMS '45
Willard Woodrow “Bill” Wilson, DMS '42, HS 1956-1958
Harold Cyril Woodworth, DMS '43
Amos R. Little
DMS '40
Amos R. “Bud” Little, the daring “jumping doctor of the Rockies,” died on June 22, 2010. He was 93.
After completing his MD at Johns Hopkins and an internship at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, Dr. Little entered the Army Medical Corps in 1943. There, he joined the Air Rescue Service, becoming one of the first doctors to be trained to parachute in the line of duty, and went on to earn national acclaim for his heroic rescues. When a B-17 bomber with a crew of 10 crashed on Crown Peak in the Colorado Rockies in June, 1944, Little parachuted from 12,500 feet to the 11,000-foot site of the crash to provide medical care to four surviving crew members. It was his first of more than 50 rescue jumps during his three years of military service (1943-1946) and made both aviation and medical history as the highest parachute landing on record. Dr. Little was honored with the Army Commendation Medal, the Air Medal, and the Legion of Merit for his service.
After leaving the Army, Dr. Little settled in Helena, Mont., where he practiced general medicine for the next 32 years. His career as a “mercy jumper” continued with the U.S. Forest Service, parachuting to the aid of injured firefighters and others. He also assisted the Forest Service and other agencies in establishing parachute units and search and rescue organizations.
As a member of Dartmouth’s alpine ski team during his undergraduate years, Little (DC’39) had laid the foundation of what would become a parallel career in skiing. Over four decades, his numerous leadership roles in the national and international alpine skiing scene included those of manager of the International Ski Federation (FIS) 1950 World Championships in Aspen, Colo.; manager of the 1960 U.S. Olympic Alpine Team and the 1962 U.S. FIS Alpine Team; slalom referee at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck (1964) and Grenoble (1968); and vice-president of FIS from 1967 to 1988.
Dr. Little left active medical practice in 1978. He then served as director of medical affairs for Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Montana and medical director of Montana Medicare Part B until 1994. In his retirement, he served for several years as chair of the Montana Health Facility Authority, the primary issuer of municipal bonds for Montana's health care organizations, continuing care residential programs, and community service providers.
Dr. Little was proud to be both father and grandfather of physicians. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Mary, whom he met during his internship at MHMH; his sons James (DC ‘65) and Amos (“Rogers”), his daughter Susan, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
Return to top
Morris J. Seligman
DMS '40
Morris J. Seligman, a retired psychiatrist, died on January 20, 2011 at the age of 92.
Dr. Seligman attended Dartmouth College with the goal of becoming a physician, graduating in 1939 from the College and from DMS in 1940. He then completed his MD at New York University School of Medicine.
Upon graduating from medical school in 1942, Dr. Seligman completed a one-year residency in medicine and surgery at Bellevue Hospital, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, serving in New Guinea and the Philippines during World War II. At the end of the war, he undertook a rotating internship followed by an internal medicine residency at Bronx Hospital.
Dr. Seligman returned to his hometown of Concord, N.H. in 1949, where he established a private practice, assisted by his wife, Rhya, as his secretary. Six years later, he left his practice to do a residency in psychiatry at the VA Hospitals in Boston and Brockton, Mass. In 1958, he and his family moved to Augusta, Maine, where he began a 28-year career as a psychiatrist at the Togus VA Hospital, retiring in 1986. During his career, he served as chief of psychiatry at Togus, and also as president of the Maine Psychiatric Association. He was a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association.
Dr. Seligman was predeceased by his wife, Rhya, in 2008. He is survived by his daughter, Martha Seligman and her companion, Richard E. Freeman, Jr.
Return to top
James Dana Darnley
DMS '41
James Dana (“Doc”) Darnley, a retired neurologist, died on October 20, 2010 at the age of 92.
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1940 and DMS in 1941, Dr. Darnley finished his medical school education at McGill University in Montreal in 1943. Following a year’s rotating internship at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, he entered the U.S. Army as a First Lieutenant and served as a battalion surgeon in Hawaii, Iwo Jima, and Saipan. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain in 1946.
He returned to Hanover for his first year of residency in internal medicine at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in 1946-47, then did a year of residency at the McGill Pathological Institute. He completed his training with a residency in neurology at the Bronx VA Hospital in New York City in 1948-49.
Dr. Darnley began his medical career in Jackson Mississippi, joining the practice of neurosurgeon Dr. Charles Neill to become the first neurologist in the state. In 1952 he moved to Detroit to join the staff of Henry Ford Hospital, where he was assistant chief of neurology. He remained there for 11 years before opening a private practice in neurology and EEG in Royal Oak, Mich., and becoming chief of neurology and EEG at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. He particularly enjoyed teaching medical students and residents, and was proud to be voted teacher of the year in 1970. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and a member of the American Medical Association. In 1975, he was joined in his private practice by his wife, Eloise, who became his office manager. They retired together in 1988.
Dr. Darnley was an avid correspondent and an early adopter of word processing, and in his retirement he served for several years as class secretary for the DMS Class of ’41.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Eloise; his daughters Brenda Darnley Martin and Deborah Darnley-Fisch, MD; his son James Dana Darnley, Jr.; and six grandchildren.
Return to top
Arthur B. French
DMS '41
Arthur B. French, a retired internist with a specialty in gastroenterology and member of a family with deep roots at DMS, died on April 26, 2011. He was 92.
Dr. French was a son of Harry Tapley French, DC ’13, DMS ’14, a professor of anatomy and neuroanatomy at DMS and a founding member of the Hitchcock Clinic in 1927. All three of his children – Arthur, Rowland (DC ’41, DMS ’42) and Elizabeth – followed him into the medical profession. Although Elizabeth (Betty) French was unable to attend the then-all-male DMS, she became the first woman to be appointed a full professor at DMS and the first female member of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic.
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1940 and DMS in 1941, Dr. Arthur French received his MD from Johns Hopkins in 1943. Following a rotating internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Britain from 1944 to 1946. He then completed a residency in internal medicine at Fort Howard VA Hospital in Baltimore and a fellowship in gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Upon completing his training in 1951, Dr. French took a position at the University of Utah College of Medicine. In 1955, he moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., where he taught at the University of Michigan Medical School, rising to professor of internal medicine and chair of the Department of Gastroenterology. At the affiliated University Hospital, he established the gastroenterology research ward (his own research interest was gluten intolerance) and for many years served as director of the hospital’s Clinical Research Unit.
Dr. French retired from the University of Michigan in 1985 as professor emeritus, internal medicine. He maintained a medical practice at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit until his retirement in 1997. Dr. French’s professional memberships included the American Physiological Society, the American Gastroenterology Association, the Institute of Nutrition, the American Society of Clinical Nutrition, and the American College of Physicians.
Dr. French is survived by his sons Harry, Rowland (DC’69), John, Arthur Jr., and Charles, his daughter, Julia, and their families, including four grandchildren; and by his companion of ten years, Beverly Ward. He was predeceased by his sister, Elizabeth, and his brother, Rowland.
Return to top
William Sinclair, Jr., '41
William “Bill” Sinclair, a retired pathologist and the most recent DMS ’41 class secretary, died on January 30, 2013, in Delray Beach, Florida. He was 94.
Dr. Sinclair was born in Connecticut, but grew up in Gorham, New Hampshire. He graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College in 1940. After attending Dartmouth Medical School, he earned an MD from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1943. He returned to Dartmouth and completed a rotating internship at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital before his studies were interrupted by service as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he participated in the D-Day invasion as part of the first wave at Omaha Beach. He began his residency in pathology at MHMH in 1946 and completed his training at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1949. Dr. Sinclair remained in Cleveland and founded the pathology department, laboratory, and school of medical technology at Lutheran Medical Center, where he also served as director of pathology for 35 years, until his retirement in 1984. He was also a former chief of staff at Lutheran Medical and a longtime clinical assistant professor of pathology at Case Western Reserve Medical School.
Dr. Sinclair is survived by his wife, Barbara, whom he married in 1998; his children, Barbara, Robert (DC’80), and John; seven grandchildren, two step children, and four step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Joan Tellington, in 1995; a grandson; and a stepson.
Return to top
Rowland B. French
DMS '42
Rowland Barnes French ’42, a retired surgeon and member of a family deeply embedded in the history of DMS, died on July 31, 2009, at the age of 89.
Dr. French’s father was Harry Tapley French, who graduated from Dartmouth College in 1913 and DMS in 1914 and whose brothers, Rowland and Raymond, also attended Dartmouth College. After completing his training, Dr. Harry French returned to Hanover to teach anatomy – later neuroanatomy – at DMS and practice internal medicine. In 1927, he was one of the founders of the Hitchcock Clinic. All three of his children became doctors: Rowland, Arthur (DC ’40, DMS ’41), and Elizabeth. Despite being unable to attend the then-all-male DMS, Elizabeth (Betty) French Lathem later became the first woman physician to be a full professor at DMS.
Rowland French graduated from Dartmouth College in 1941, from DMS in 1942, and from Harvard Medical School in 1943, under the accelerated wartime MD program. He served as a doctor with the rank of lieutenant in the U.S. Navy attached to the Marine Corps and took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima, working on the front lines until he was wounded. Following the war, he completed his training in internal medicine and surgery at Boston City Hospital, Massachusetts Memorial Hospital, and Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, followed by a fellowship in pathology at MHMH.
In 1952, he moved to the University of Wisconsin, where he taught surgery and was assistant director of the tumor clinic. He then practiced general surgery at the Veterans Hospital in Phoenix, Ariz., and in 1953, he moved to Eastport, Maine. He served as a physician there for 37 years and helped establish the Eastport Health Care Center, which is now named in his honor. He was a member of the American Diabetic Society and the American Thoracic Society.
Dr. French was the 18th Rowland Barnes French, a name passed by tradition from uncle to nephew. He was predeceased by his wife, Winifred, in 1995. He is survived by his daughter, Ann; four sons—Robert, DC ’74, John, DC PhD’84, Hugh, and Edward; three grandchildren; and a nephew, Rowland B. French, DC ’69. He was predeceased by his sister, Betty French Lathem, in 1992.
Return to top
Eddy D. Palmer
DMS '42
Eddy Palmer, a gastroenterologist who made important contributions to his field as a clinician and investigator, died on February 21, 2010 at the age of 92.
After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1939, he earned an MS in tropical medicine at Tulane University before returning to Dartmouth to attend DMS. He went on to complete his MD at Rochester Medical School in 1943. Part way through his residency at Rochester General Hospital, Dr. Palmer was drafted into the Army. He completed his residency at Walter Reed Army Hospital, and then remained in the Army for the next 20 years as a colonel in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. During this time he served as chief of gastroenterology at a number of hospitals in the in the U.S. and in Germany. Upon his retirement from the military in 1965, Dr. Palmer was awarded the Legion of Merit medal.
Dr. Palmer then returned to his home state of New Jersey, where he became director of the Division of Gastroenterology for the New Jersey College of Medicine and chief of the Gastroenterology Section of the East Orange VA Hospital. He was appointed chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at Morristown Memorial Hospital in 1972. From 1975 to 2000 he maintained a private practice in gastroenterology in Hackettstown, N.J.
Following the invention of the rigid EderHufford esophagoscope in 1949, Dr. Palmer designed a semiflexible gastroscope that could be passed through the EderHufford esophagoscope, thereby avoiding a second intubation with a separate semiflexible gastroscope and its attendant risks. The EderPalmer transesophagoscopic flexible gastroscope became the primary gastroscope for gastroenterologists in the 1950s.
In the early 1940s, Dr. Palmer had begun a prospective evaluation of the endoscopic diagnosis of upper gastrointestinal bleeding, which ultimately spanned two decades and included 1,400 patients. He started out with a double intubation technique, then moved to the transesophagoscopic approach. His work showed the feasibility of endoscopy as the diagnostic method of choice in a bleeding patient.
Throughout his long career, Dr. Palmer published extensively, authoring 650 journal articles and 16 books. One of these, Clinical Gastroenterology, first published in 1957, was widely used as a medical school textbook on the subject.
Dr. Palmer was a Master of the American College of Physicians (1986), a former president of the American Gastroscopic Society, a member of the American Gastroenterological Association, the Society of Military Physicians of the U.S., and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy—from which he received the prestigious Rudolf V. Schindler Award, the Society’s highest tribute. He was a founder of the William Beaumont Gastrointestinal Society for armed forces gastroenterologists, and received the Society’s first Eddy D. Palmer Endoscopic Award, which was established in his honor.
Dr. Palmer was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Jeanne. He is survived by his daughter Hannah Rottman, two sons – Thomas and Jonathan, four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Return to top
Robert C. Rainie, '42
Dr. Robert “Bob” “Slip” Clayton Rainie, a retired internist, died in Concord, New Hampshire, on October 8, 2012, following a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. He was 92 years old.
Dr. Rainie, a native of Concord, graduated with an AB in pre-med from Dartmouth College in 1941. After attending Dartmouth Medical School, he earned his MD from Boston University in 1943. His postgraduate training in internal medicine included an internship at Central Maine General Hospital in Lewiston, a residency at Massachusetts Memorial Hospital in Boston, and a fellowship at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. He served in the Army during World War II and as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Medical Service during the Korean War.
In 1950, Dr. Rainie opened a private practice in Concord, which he ran until his retirement in 1986. During this time, he was also a staff physician at Concord Hospital, and in 1955, he began working part-time for the State of New Hampshire, serving as chief medical consultant to the New Hampshire Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the Social Security Disability Program. He worked for the State of New Hampshire until 2003. He also served as the medical director for Havenwood-Heritage Heights, a continuing care retirement community in Concord, from 1969 until 1986. When he retired from that position, the Sheltered Care Unit was named “The Rainie Unit.”
Dr. Raine was governor of the American College of Physicians in New Hampshire from 1977 to 1982. He also co-founded and was president of the N.H. Diabetes Association, receiving the organization’s Founder’s Award and serving as the chairman of their board of directors in 1983. Other honors include the A.H. Robins Award for outstanding community service, presented by the New Hampshire Medical Society in 1987, and the Laureate Award, which he received as a fellow of the American College of Physicians, New Hampshire chapter, in 1993. In 1997, Dr. Rainie was awarded a Social Security Administration Commissioner’s Citation for over 40 years of dedicated service to New Hampshire disabled and handicapped citizens.
Dr. Rainie is survived by his wife of 68 years, Dora “Dode”; their three children, Scott, Robin, and Jennifer “Jiffi”; and one grandson. He was predeceased by his granddaughter.
Return to top
Willard Woodrow “Bill” Wilson
DMS '42, HS 1956-1958
Dr. Willard “Bill” Wilson, an anesthesiologist known as “Dr. Bill” to his patients, died on July 3, 2010, at the age of 92.
A native of New Brunswick, Canada, Dr. Wilson came to the United States as a young teenager at the invitation of Harry R. Wellman, DC 1907, a professor at the Tuck School of Business. Dr. Wilson grew up along the Miramichi River in New Brunswick and met Mr. Wellman during the professor’s annual fishing trips to the river. As Dr. Wilson would later tell it, Mr. Wellman took a shine to him, realizing that he had the potential to benefit from higher education. Dr. Wilson lived in Mr. Wellman’s home in Hanover, doing yard work and other household chores, while he attended Hanover High School. He went on to Dartmouth College, graduating in 1941. Following Dartmouth Medical School, he returned to Canada and earned his MD in 1943 from McGill University in Montreal.
While at McGill, Dr. Wilson was inducted into the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, where he served until 1946, reaching the rank of Captain. His service in the army coincided with his rotating internship at Montreal General Hospital (1943-44) and the first two years of his residency in neurosurgery at University Hospital in Edmonton, Alberta, which he completed in 1947. He then started a solo general practice in the small town of Brighton, Ontario, eventually forming a partnership and establishing a clinic with another physician there.
After 10 years of private practice, Dr. Wilson decided to specialize and returned to Hanover in 1956 to train at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, where he completed a residency in anesthesiology in 1958. Returning to Canada, he joined the department of anesthesiology at North York Branson Hospital in Ontario. He served as chief of anesthesiology for 15 years and chief of staff and member of the board of governors for three years. He retired in 1984.
Dr. Wilson was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Dorothy, in 2000. He is survived by his son Willard (Bill); his daughters Nancy, Nora, and Paula; and five grandchildren.
Return to top
Charles W. Clarke, Jr
DMS '43
Dr. Charles W. “Bud” Clarke, Jr., a retired primary care physician, died on August 10, 2011, at the age of 90.
Dr. Clarke attended Dartmouth under the accelerated wartime MD program, graduating from both the College and DMS in 1943. He received his MD from Harvard in 1945. He then interned for a year at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City, where he returned in 1948 for a residency in internal medicine after serving a year of active duty in the U.S. Navy. Upon completing his medical training, he worked for Time, Inc., doing research for the medicine department. He then returned to active duty with the Navy for a year during the Korean War, serving as a medical officer.
Dr. Clarke joined the Summit (NJ) Medical Group in 1952, where he practiced for 33 years before retiring in 1985. He served a term as president and was a partner in the Group, along with DMS classmate James Robinson ’43. He also served as president of the Summit Board of Health and chief of medicine at Overlook Hospital in Summit, where he was an attending physician.
In addition to practicing medicine, Dr. Clarke was a lifelong musician, playing the saxophone and clarinet in jazz and concert bands, including the “Doctors Symphony” while a medical resident in New York. He and several others put together a 17-piece jazz band, playing throughout northern New Jersey for over 40 years.
Dr. Clarke is survived by his wife of 60 years, Diane; his sons Frederic, Charles W. III, and Christopher (DC’ 75); and three grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Suzanne Hagler Clarke.
Return to top
John L. Crenshaw, Jr.
DMS '43
John (“Jack”) Crenshaw, a retired obstetrician and gynecologist, died on December 28, 2008 at the age of 88.
He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1942, from DMS in 1943, and received his MD from Northwestern University in 1945. Following a year’s internship at St. Luke’s Hospital in Chicago, he entered the military and served as a captain with the Army Medical Corps in the China-Burma-India theater for two years. He returned complete his residency and a fellowship in obstetrics and gynecology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Upon completing his training, Dr. Crenshaw and his wife, Mimi, moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1953, where he joined the Salt Lake Clinic in ob-gyn. In 1957, he was appointed a clinical instructor in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Utah College of Medicine. After 13 years of practice in Salt Lake City, the Crenshaws moved to Jackson, Wyo. in 1964, where Dr. Crenshaw became the third physician and the only specialist in town. He was a fellow of the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology and of the American College of Surgery and a member of the American Medical Association. He retired in 1980.
He is survived by his wife, Miriam; his daughter Holly, and three sons—John, Peter, and Michael.
Return to top
Forbes Delany
DMS '43
Forbes Delany, a retired radiologist with a specialty in nuclear medicine, died on March 31, 2010. He was 88.
Delany attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School under the Navy V-12 program, graduating from both in 1943. One of “Sy’s boys” at DMS, in later years Dr. Delany was an enthusiastic supporter of the Rolf C. Syvertsen Memorial Fund and a member of the Syvertsen Alumni Memorial Committee, which annually selects the Syvertsen Scholars and Fellow. He also served as a member of the Dean’s Council for the Future of DMS from 2001 to 2008.
Dr. Delany completed his medical studies at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving his MD in 1945. After an internship in obstetrics and gynecology at New York Hospital, he served as a Navy surgeon attached to the Marine Corps, supervising a medical center in Tsingtao, China. He took great pride in his contributions during World War II.
Following his military service, Dr. Delany returned to New York Hospital for a residency in radiology. After a year as an instructor of radiology at Cornell Medical School, he moved to Greenwich, Conn., in 1952 to join Greenwich Hospital's new radiology facility. In 1959, he partnered with Dr. Herbert von Gal to open the Greenwich Radiological Group.
In 1967, he became the youngest physician to be designated chief of the Greenwich Hospital medical staff, serving in that role until 1972, when he became director of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. A lifelong learner, Dr. Delany returned to medical school in 1975 to become board certified in nuclear medicine. His leadership of the department enabled Greenwich Hospital to be one of the first in Connecticut to receive a CT scanner, and in 1977 Dr. Delany performed the hospital’s first CAT scan. Over time, he further expanded his department’s role from solely diagnostic to include oncology and other services.
Dr. Delany was a member of the American College of Radiology, the Radiological Society of North America, the Society of Nuclear Medicine, and the American Medical Association. After retiring from medical practice in 1993, he served the Town of Greenwich as a member of its Board of Health. He was also the Physician of Record for the town until 2007.
Dr. Delany is survived by his wife, Mary; six children—Forbes, Kirby, Cort (DC’77), Sabra, Gregg, and Blake—and their spouses, and 12 grandchildren.
Return to top
Eugene L. Hoch
DMS '43
Eugene L. Hoch, a retired urologist, died at the age of 91 on May 18, 2011.
After graduating from Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Hoch received his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1944. He then served as a physician in the Navy, stationed in Newfoundland, during World War II. After the war he returned to New York City, where his joined his father, also a urologist, in joint practice. About 50 percent of their time was spent on charity work. In conjunction with his private practice, he also worked as a urological surgeon at St. Luke’s Hospital in Manhattan.
Dr. Hoch and his wife moved to Lyme, N.H. after his retirement in the early 1970’s, where hen built his home almost entirely from scratch – harvesting timbers from his own woodlot and cutting the lumber at his own sawmill.
He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Margery; their children, Judy, Jim, and Nancy; and two granddaughters.
Return to top
George L. Rider , '43
George L. Rider, a retired general practitioner who practiced for many years in Tulare, California, died at the age of 91 on July 8, 2012.
Dr. Rider was raised in Oxford, Ohio, where his father was the athletic director at Miami University. He received an academic and athletic scholarship to Dartmouth, where he majored in pre-med and competed in track. In 1942, during his junior year, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy as part of the V-12 program and graduated from both Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School in 1943. He earned his MD from Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1945, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He then completed an internship at the City Hospital of St. Louis in 1946. From 1946 to 1948, he was on active duty as a U.S. Navy medical officer, stationed at the VA Hospital in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the San Diego Naval Hospital, and the VA Hospital in Wadsworth, Kansas. Following his military service, he completed a residency at Kern General Hospital in Bakersfield, California.
Dr. Rider moved to Tulare, California, in 1949 and served patients there for 50 years as part of a private group practice. His commitment to his patients was unwavering and throughout his career, particularly during the early years of his practice, he regularly made house calls and bartered with patients who could not afford his services. He often accompanied his patients when they were transported by ambulance to ensure their safety and offer comfort. He delivered hundreds of babies and as chief of staff at Tulare District Hospital, he was credited with beginning the hospital’s first cardiac care program. When Dr. Rider stopped practicing medicine in 2002, he was a staff physician at the Tulare Community Health Clinic.
Dr. Rider is survived by two of his three children, Jay (George) Rider and Missy Rider Yavasile; five grandchildren; and seven great grandchildren. His wife, Shirley, died in 1988, and his youngest son, William “Ray,” died as the result of an accident in 1970.
Return to top
James W. Robinson
DMS '43, HS 1949-1950
James W. Robinson, who was born to missionary parents and grew up in China, died at the age of 90 on February 25, 2011.
After graduating from Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Robinson completed his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He served in the U.S. Navy as a medical officer during WWII and the Korean War. Between the wars, he returned to Hanover and completed his internship in internal medicine at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. He practiced internal medicine and was a partner at the Summit (N.J.) Medical Group, along with classmate Charles (Bud) Clarke, DMS ’43. In addition, he was an attending physician and chief of medicine at Overlook Hospital in Summit. He retired in 1987.
While an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Dr. Robinson was active in the Dartmouth Players and the Jack-O-Lantern, a college humor magazine. After his retirement, he combined his medical background with his interest in theater as a volunteer with the New Jersey Mental Health Players, performing impromptu skits for school groups and others to teach the signs and symptoms surrounding mental health issues.
He is survived by his wife, Rose-Joan Barron; daughters Carol, Lynn, and Jan; six grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and two step-children—Alice and Bruce Barron.
Return to top
R. Robert Tyson
DMS '43
Dr. R. Robert “Bob” Tyson, a retired vascular surgeon and former chief of surgery at Temple University Hospital, died at the age of 92 on November 6, 2011.
Dr. Tyson graduated from Dartmouth College in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and zoology. After attending Dartmouth Medical School, he earned his MD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1944. He completed an internship at the Graduate Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania and began a residency in surgery there in 1945. After medical duty in the Navy from 1946 to 1948, he completed his residency at Temple University Hospital in 1951.
Following his training, Dr. Tyson joined the surgical staff at Temple University Hospital and the faculty at Temple University Medical School as an instructor in surgery. In 1962, he became a full professor at the medical school and chief of the vascular surgery section at the hospital. From 1973 to 1983, he was chief of surgery. He retired from Temple in 1984.
The author of 78 scientific articles and five films about vascular surgery, Dr. Tyson was a fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and of the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery, where he was president in 1983. He was also past president of the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia County Medical Societies. He was chair of Temple’s professional advisory committee in 1975, a consultant to the nationwide pre-surgical screening panel of Cornell Medical Center in 1981, and board chair of Pennsylvania Blue Shield from 1988 to 1992.
Dr. Tyson is survived by his wife, Frances; a son, R. Michael; daughters Leslie Rudolph and Virginia Faus; and three grandchildren. He was predeceased by his first wife, Eleanor, who died in 1987.
Return to top
Franklin H. West
DMS '43
Franklin West, a retired psychiatrist, died on March 11, 2010. He was 88. Dr. West was a dedicated member of his class, serving as Class Secretary for almost 30 years, and a generous donor to DMS.
He graduated from both Dartmouth College and DMS in 1943 under the U.S. Navy V-12 program. At DMS, the beginnings of West’s lifelong interest in photography found a subject in his classmates, and his photos provide an enduring record of the DMS Class of 1943. He went on to complete his medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945, then served in the U.S. Naval Reserve Corps, during which time he interned at a military hospital on Long Island. Dr. West did his residency in psychiatry at the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital, and later did additional training in psychoanalysis at the Philadelphia Association for Psychoanalysis.
Upon completing his residency training in 1951, Dr. West remained on the staff of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital for more than 40 years, first as a staff psychiatrist and later as senior attending physician. In 1968 he was appointed Chief of Psychiatric Services at Philadelphia General Hospital. He also held academic appointments at Hahnemann University Hospital, rising to clinical professor of mental health sciences in1970 and receiving emeritus status in 1986. He was a member of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association.
Together with his brothers, William West (DC’50, TU’51) and James West (DC’53, TU’54), Dr. West established the Herman O. West Professorship at DMS in 1989 in memory of their father. Herman West was founder of the West Company in 1923, now West Pharmaceutical Services. (In its early years, the company manufactured packaging for injectable drugs, enabling the widespread distribution of life-saving drugs such as penicillin and insulin.) The West endowment supports a chair in geriatric medicine, which is currently held by Dr. John Wasson, associate director of the Dartmouth Centers for Health & Aging.
In 1991, the West brothers also established the Esther Risberg West Endowed Scholarship Fund at DMS, in honor of their mother. Dr. West was also a loyal donor to the Fund for DMS, he was active in encouraging his classmates to support the school, and had included DMS in his estate plans.
Dr. West is survived by his wife, Margot; sons Thomas and David; daughters Catherine Greer, Janet Wood, and Frances West; three stepchildren, 10 grandchildren, and a great-grandson. He was predeceased by his brothers, William and James.
Return to top
Harold Cyril Woodworth
DMS '43
Harold Cyril “Hank” Woodworth ’43, a retired immunologist, medical microbiologist, and public health officer, died on February 23, 2009. He was 88 years old.
He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1942 and from DMS in 1943. After receiving his M.D. from Harvard in 1944, he took his internship at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, then served in the U.S. Navy as a medical officer with the rank of lieutenant, junior grade. He returned to DMS in 1946 to complete a fellowship in physiology, followed by a residency at the Veterans Administration Hospital in White River Junction, Vt.
For the next four years, he worked as a doctor in general practice in Bristol, Vt. From 1952 to 1954, he returned to duty in the U.S. Navy and, as a lieutenant aboard the USS General Hodges, was responsible for the medical care of 1700 shipboard personnel. Going on to earn his Ph.D. in microbiology at Yale, he was named a Howard Hughes Research Fellow. Dr. Woodworth worked at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for 10 years, where he was immunology laboratory chief and rheumatic fever immunology laboratory chief. After leaving the CDC in 1967, he served as county health officer for Colbert and Lauderdale Counties in Alabama, and in 1978, he became regional health officer for Colbert, Franklin, and Lauderdale Counties. He retired in 1981.
He was predeceased by his wife, Evelyn, in 2007. He is survived by his two sons, Richard and Karl; and three grandsons.
Return to top
William M. Stahl, Jr., '44
William M. Stahl, Jr., a retired surgeon and professor of medicine, died on December 22, 2012, at the age of 90.
Dr. Stahl attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School under the U.S. Navy V-12 program, graduating from both in 1944. He completed his MD at Harvard Medical School in 1945. Dr. Stahl interned at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital from 1946 to 1947 and then completed a four-year surgical preceptorship under his father, William M. Stahl, Sr., MD, at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.
Dr. Stahl began his medical practice as chief of general services in the U.S. Army Hospital at Fort Devens, Mass. He was commissioned as a captain in the Army Medical Corps and stationed on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands under the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. There he directed a mobile surgical unit, for which he received a commendation for his outstanding performance. He was the only doctor for nearly 1,000 men.
Once discharged, he did his residency at Bellevue Medical Center in New York City. Dr. Stahl then went into private practice for seven years in Danbury, Conn., and was chief of surgery at Danbury Hospital.
From 1963 to 1966 Dr. Stahl served as an associate professor of surgery and vice chairman of the department of surgery at the University of Vermont Medical School in Burlington. He then returned to New York and joined the faculty at New York University School of Medicine and the staff at Bellevue Hospital. In 1977, he became surgeon in chief (later chief of surgery) at the Metropolitan Hospital Center and a professor of surgery at New York Medical College—both positions he held until 1997. In 1980, he also took on the roles of director of surgery at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center in the Bronx and attending surgeon at Westchester County Medical Center in Valhalla, NY, until his retirement in 1997.
Dr. Stahl was a prolific writer, coauthoring more than a hundred medical publications, including articles, abstracts, books, and book chapters. He served on the editorial board of Critical Care Medicine from 1982 to 1990. He was a member of numerous societies, including the American Association for Surgery of Trauma, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the New York State Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the American Surgical Association. Dr. Stahl also served as chairman of the New York-Brooklyn Committee on Trauma for the American College of Surgeons. He served as class secretary for the DMS Class of 1944 from 1984 to 1986.
Dr. Stahl is survived by his wife, Patricia Stahl; children William M. Stahl III, Katherine Stahl, Sarah Jaffe Turnbull, Elizabeth Stahl Parkinson, Matyas Stahl, and Elizabeth C. Stahl; and brother Frederick A. “Tad” Stahl DC ’52. He was predeceased by his son Jonathan Stahl.
Return to top
Albert M. Storrs, '44
Albert M. Storrs, a retired general surgeon, died at the age of 91 in Hillsboro, Ohio, on February 12, 2013.
Dr. Storrs, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and graduated from Dartmouth Medical School in 1944. He then earned an MD from the University of Cincinnati in 1946. From 1946 to 1949, he served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, including two years on board the USS Springfield. Once discharged from the Navy, he completed his surgical residency at Cincinnati General Hospital (now University Hospital). Following his residency, he went into private practice from 1954 to 1955 in Ithaca, New York, and then continued in private practice in Dayton, Ohio, from 1955 until he retired to a farm in Hillsboro, Ohio. He was a diplomate of the American Board of Surgery and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Storrs is survived by his wife, Lila; three of four children, Ann, Albert III, and John; eight grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his daughter Kathryn.
Return to top
John Wesley Tope III
DMS '44
John Wesley “Jack” Tope III ’44, a retired surgeon, died on August 14, 2009. He was 87 years old.
In 1944, Jack Tope graduated from Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School under the U.S. Navy V-12 program, a wartime accelerated pre-clinical MD program. At DMS, he roomed with Marsh Tenney ’44, who would later become dean of the Medical School and whom he counted as one of his finest friends. Dr. Tope received his MD from Northwestern Medical School in 1946 and did his internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1947 to 1949, attending the School of Aviation Medicine in Pensacola, Fla. and receiving the designation of flight surgeon. He then returned to Cook County Hospital, where he completed his residency in general surgery in 1953.
Upon finishing his residency, Dr. Tope joined the staff of Oak Park Hospital (now Rush Oak Park Hospital), founded by his grandfather in 1907 and where his father had also practiced. He remained there throughout his career, serving as chief of staff and chief of surgery for many years. He was also an associate and attending surgeon at Cook County Hospital in the breast tumor clinic for 15 years and held an appointment as assistant clinical professor of surgery at Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago. He was a board member of the American Cancer Society.
After retiring to Ludlow, Vt., in 1991 he enjoyed the companionship of fellow DMS’44 classmates at monthly luncheons in Norwich.
His first wife, Kathryn, predeceased him in 1986. His second wife, Mary, died in 2008. He is survived by four daughters—Mary, Kathleen, Linda, and Elizabeth; and two grandchildren.
Return to top
Melvin F. Johnson, Jr.
DMS '45
Melvin (“Mel”) Johnson, a retired internist with a specialty in pulmonary medicine, died on October 31, 2010. He was 85.
Dr. Johnson was a 1945 graduate of DMS and a 1946 graduate of Dartmouth College. He earned his MD from Tulane in 1948. He came back to Hanover for his intern year, joining several classmates at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. He then returned to Tulane for a residency in tuberculosis and pulmonary diseases, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Tulane, working at Charity Hospital. His residency training was interrupted by a two-year stint in the U.S. Naval Reserve during the Korean War, first on loan to the Army in Tokyo and then at the Naval Hospital at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, Calif. He retired from the U.S.N.R. with the rank of Commander.
In 1954, Dr. Johnson opened a private practice in Shreveport, La., where he set up a single waiting room for all races, a progressive idea in those days. He practiced next door to, and was closely connected with, CHRISTUS Schumpert Hospital. He also worked at P & S Hospital in Monroe and was on the staff of The Pines Sanatorium in Shreveport. He was part of the group that established the Louisiana State University Medical School in Shreveport in 1965. In 1969, he was appointed assistant clinical professor of medicine there. An avid gardener, Dr. Johnson is remembered for bringing trays full of camellia blossoms from his garden every February and March and distributing the flowers during his hospital rounds. He retired in the mid-1990s after more than 40 years of practice. He then served his DMS class as class secretary from 1993 to 2005.
Dr. Johnson is survived by Lea, his wife of 58 years, and by his children: Eric and his wife, Kathryn; Neil and his wife, Cindy; Margo Williams and her husband, Larry; and seven grandchildren.
Return to top
David D. Kirkpatrick, Jr., '45
David D. “Dave” Kirkpatrick, Jr., 89, a retired internist, died on April 21, 2013, at his residence after a period of failing health.
Dr. Kirkpatrick graduated from Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School in 1945 under the U.S. Navy V-12 program. He went on to earn his MD at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1947. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia from 1947 to 1952.
From 1948 to 1950, Dr. Kirkpatrick served in the U.S. Navy and was recalled to serve as a ship’s physician in the Destroyer Division from 1953 to 1954. Afterward, he practiced internal medicine in Meadville, Pennsylvania. He retired from private practice in 1993 and went on to establish the Meadville Area Free Clinic, where he served as medical director until 2008.
Dr. Kirkpatrick is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Alice “Marnie”; their four children, Mary Lynn, Suzanne, David D. III, and Daniel; 11 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by a brother, Robert L. Kirkpatrick (DC ’48); a sister, Suzanne K. Henry; and a son-in-law, John Brubaker.
Return to top
Fred Plum
DMS '45
Neurologist Fred Plum, a leading authority on brain metabolism and coma, an advocate of the right to die, and a renowned clinician, teacher, and researcher, died on June 11, 2010, at the age of 86.
Working in the Dartmouth pathology lab as Dartmouth College undergraduate (Class of 1944), Plum built a small electroencephalograph—the first in New England—to study the brain’s circulatory pathways. After graduating from DMS, he went on to complete his MD at Cornell in 1947, followed by internship and residency at New York Hospital and a fellowship in neurology at Bellevue Hospital.
Plum’s interest in neurology had been kindled as a teenager, when his sister died of polio. Early in his career, Dr. Plum questioned the prevailing belief that polio patients should be kept off respirators and forced to breathe on their own, and proved that respiratory support for patients incapable of breathing on their own reduced mortality by 40 percent.
After two years of service at the St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens, N.Y., Dr. Plum was recruited to head the neurology division at the University of Washington in 1953. He remained there for ten years before returning to Cornell in 1963 to become the Anne Parrish Titzell professor and chair of neurology at Cornell University Medical College (now Weill Cornell) and chief of neurology at New York-Cornell Medical Center (now New York-Presbyterian).
His work there, over the next 35 years, was highly influential. In 1966, he published The Diagnosis of Stupor and Coma with Dr. Jerome P. Posner. Now in its fourth edition, the book is still the leading text on this subject. In the 1970’s research by Dr. Plum and his colleague Dr. Bryan Jennett led to the development of the Glasgow Coma Score, which remains the standard method for determining the severity of a patient’s coma. And with Jennet, Dr. Plum coined the term “persistent vegetative state” to describe unconscious patients who appear conscious. He testified as an expert witness in the case of Karen Ann Quinlan—a young woman in a vegetative state whose situation sparked a national debate about the right to die in the mid-1970s.
Dr. Plum was an advocate the right of terminally ill patients to choose to cease treatment, and argued for the use of living wills. “He felt very strongly that people should die with dignity and control the end of their lives as much as possible, and that lives should not be extended beyond the point where a person could feel his own humanity,” said said his wife, Susan Butler Plum, quoted in The Washington Post’s obituary of her husband.
As a researcher investigating the biochemistry and electrophysiology of brain function, Dr. Plum made major contributions to the understanding of the fundamental workings of the brain, improving the diagnosis and care of comatose patients. He authored more than 300 original research reports and reviews. He is also remembered as a gifted teacher, and many of Dr. Plum’s students have gone on to become leaders in neurology. His skill and empathy as a clinician was captured in the book Reprieve: A Memoir by his patient, the choreographer and writer Agnes de Mille.
Dr. Plum was founding editor of Annals of Neurology, founding editor of Contemporary Neurology Series, and chief editor and then editor of Archives of Neurology from 1971 to 1984. He was active in a number of medical societies, serving at various times as president of the American Neurologic Association, the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Diseases, The Harvey Society, and the New York Neurological Society.
His many awards and honors included his election as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1996, election to the Institute of Medicine in 1985, and New York-Cornell Medical Center’s 1995 Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award for his “exceptional and longstanding service” to the institution.
Dr. Plum is survived by his wife, Susan, and three children from an earlier marriage: his sons Michael and Christopher and his daughter Carol.
Read The New York Times’ obituary of Fred Plum here.
Return to top
Berthold E. Schwarz
DMS '45
Berthold (“Bert”) Schwarz, a psychiatrist and investigator of the paranormal, died on September 16, 2010 at the age of 85.
The son and grandson of eminent psychiatrists, Dr. Schwarz attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School under the V-12 Navy College Training Program. After completing his MD degree at New York University College of Medicine in 1950, he returned to Hanover for a rotating internship at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. He then did his residency in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic, followed by a master’s in psychiatry at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Schwarz spent nearly 25 years in private practice in Montclair, N.J. In 1982, he moved to Vero Beach, Fla., where he continued in private practice for another 20 years. He also served for a time as research director and medical director of the National Institute for Rehabilitation Engineering. Paralleling his psychiatric practice, Dr. Schwarz pursued a long-standing research interest in parapsychology, including telepathic communications in the parent-child relationship and the physician-patient relationship, and telekinesis. He studied and wrote about subjects with paranormal abilities, which he documented in an extensive collection of audio and videotapes. He was also interested in the psychiatric paranormal aspects of UFO sightings, and he examined scores of UFO observers and was a consultant for Flying Saucer Review.
Dr. Schwarz was a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of various other medical and scientific organizations. He authored over 185 scholarly articles, contributing to numerous professional journals, including the Journal of Spirituality and Paranormal Studies. He also published more than a dozen books, including Parent-Child Telepathy, and A Psychiatrist Looks at ESP.
Dr. Schwarz is survived by his wife of 55 years, Ardis; his son, Eric; his daughter, Lisa Ericson; and a granddaughter, Kristi.
Return to top
Sterling B. Suddarth, ‘45
Sterling “Suds” Baker Suddarth, a retired pediatrician, died at the age of 89 in Portland, Oregon, on December 19, 2012.
Dr. Suddarth, a native of Kansas City, Missouri, attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School under the V-12 Navy College Training Program. He earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth in 1944 and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1947. From 1947 to 1948, he interned at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, followed by a two-year residency in pediatrics at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. In 1951, he entered private practice in Eugene, Oregon, with an interruption from 1952 to 1954 to serve with the U.S. Navy as a medical officer on board the USNS General W. H. Gordon. Following his military discharge, Dr. Suddarth resumed private practice in Denver, Colorado, and Cheyenne, Wyoming. He joined the Geisinger Memorial Hospital and Clinic in Danville, Pennsylvania, in 1959. In 1969, he moved to Kansas City, where he remained in private practice until his retirement in 1983. After he retired, he served two tours as a medical missionary in the Sudan and Kenya.
Dr. Suddarth is survived by his four daughters, Jane, Julie, Jennifer, and Molly; four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; his sister, Marjorie; and brother, Don.
Return to top
Guy W. Van Syckle, ‘45
Guy W. Van Syckle, a retired diagnostic radiologist, died in Hartford, Connecticut on November 25, 2012. He was 87.
Born in Woodbridge, New Jersey, Dr. Van Syckle was a graduate of Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Medical School, and Cornell Medical School. After earning his MD in 1948, he trained at Hartford (Connecticut) Hospital and Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and served two years in the US Navy as a medical officer during the Korean War. From 1955 to 1956, he was an instructor in radiology at Yale University. In 1956, he became a staff radiologist at Danbury (Connecticut) Hospital and eventually became Director of Radiology there. Van Syckle went on to open a successful private practice in diagnostic radiology in Danbury, where he served patients for more than 30 years.
During his professional career, he served on numerous boards and committees at the local, state and national levels. Among his proudest professional achievements were serving as president of the Connecticut Medical Society and chairman of the New England Delegation to the American Medical Association. From 2005 until his death, he also served as class secretary for the DMS ‘45s.
Dr. Van Syckle is survived by his sister, Gretchen V. Whalen; four children—Guy Jr., Peter, Janice, and Karen; and nine grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Janice, in 2004.
Return to top
Robert D. Wiley
DMS '45
Robert (“Bob”) Wiley ’45, a retired obstetrician who had assisted in the delivery of more than 3,700 babies, died on April 29, 2010 at the age of 88.
A graduate of both Dartmouth College and DMS under the Navy V-12 program, Dr. Wiley completed his medical degree at New York University School of Medicine in 1947. He then returned to Hanover for an internship at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, followed by a one-year fellowship in the MHMH Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. His residency at Grace-New Haven Hospital (Yale) was interrupted by two years of service in the U.S. Army’s 43rd Division, stationed in Munich.
Upon completing his residency in 1954, Dr. Wiley accepted a position with the Laconia Clinic in Laconia, NH, where he worked for the next 37 years, twice serving as its president. For much of that time he was a member of the staff of the Lakes Region General Hospital, where he not only served as chief of staff, but also completed a six-year term as trustee. He was a member of the American Medical Association, the American Congress of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a former trustee of the American Group Practice Association.
He was predeceased in 1965 by his first wife, Honnor, a nurse anesthetist whom he had met while both were at MHMH. He is survived by his second wife, Cecile; two sons—Christopher Wiley, MD, DC ‘74 (an anesthesiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock) and his wife Peggy, and Mark Wiley, DC ’75 and his wife, Janice; two daughters—Suzanne Young, DC ’77 (a director in the Dartmouth College alumni relations office) and her husband Tracy, and Jean Elliott and her husband Joseph; and two stepchildren—Cynthia Baron and Randy Pike. His 16 grandchildren include Benjamin Wiley, DC’10.
Return to top
Lee E. Bartholomew
DMS '48
Lee E. Bartholomew, a retired rheumatologist, died in October, 2010. He was 83.
Dr. Bartholomew attended Dartmouth College and DMS under the V-12 Navy College Training Program, earning his undergraduate degree and completing his first two years of medical training in just four years. He received his MD at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
After completing an internship and a research fellowship in infectious diseases at Philadelphia General Hospital, he entered the U.S. Naval Reserve and served two years of active duty, as doctor for a ship’s crew, from 1952 to 1954. He then continued his training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., with a fellowship in internal medicine.
After two years in private practice in Lima, Ohio, Dr. Bartholomew went to the University of Michigan for training in rheumatology. He remained there as a member of the faculty and a member of the Rackham Arthritis Research Unit for 12 years, becoming an associate professor and chief of the arthritis clinic at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. At Michigan, he met Frances Nelson, who became his research associate, and whom he married in 1972.
In 1971, Dr. Bartholomew was appointed professor and head of the division of rheumatology at Albany Medical College in Albany, N.Y. He spent the remainder of his career there, retiring as a professor emeritus in 1986. Dr. Bartholomew was a fellow of the American College of Physicians, a master of the American College of Rheumatology, and a member of the American Rheumatism Association. He served on the board of the Hemachromatosis Association of America and as board member and board president of the Elizabethtown Community Hospital in Elizabethtown, N.Y.
Dr. Bartholomew was predeceased by his wife, Frances. He is survived by his son, John, and daughter, Margaret.
Read a June, 2009 profile of Dr. Bartholomew here.
Return to top
Robert A. Hoekelman, '48
Dr. Robert “Bob” Hoekelman, a retired pediatrician of national renown, died at the age of 85 on March 7, 2013, in Canandaigua, New York. He was Canandaigua’s first pediatrician and a major force behind what is now Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
Dr. Hoekelman, who was born and raised in Cliffside Park, New Jersey, graduated from Dartmouth College with a bachelor of arts degree in 1947 and then attended Dartmouth Medical School. He earned an MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1950 and came back to Hanover as a rotating intern and assistant resident in pediatrics at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. He completed his training at Babies Hospital, now New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, at Columbia University Medical Center. During the Korean War, he served for two years as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps.
In 1955, Dr. Hoekelman entered private practice with the Canandaigua Medical Group as its first pediatrician. A year later, he joined the faculty at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry as a clinical instructor in pediatrics. In 1957, he was named chief of pediatrics at F.F. Thompson Hospital in Canandaigua, where he also served as chief of the medical staff from 1964 to 1965. In 1967, Dr. Hoekelman was appointed Director of Ambulatory Services in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He subsequently became a full professor and chaired the Department of Pediatrics from 1983 to 1993. As chair, he restructured the department, creating new divisions, including emergency medicine and critical care. He later became associate dean from 1993 to 1995. He retired in 1997 but continued teaching until 2004.
During his tenure at the University of Rochester, Dr. Hoekelman established the Strong Children’s Medical Center, which later became Golisano Children’s Hospital. He also helped establish the Ronald McDonald House in Rochester. He wrote grants and received funding for numerous research and educational projects, including the Strong Children’s Research Center, a multidisciplinary collaborative research center established to bring together researchers working on childhood diseases. He also introduced cross-training in pediatrics for residents in family medicine, emergency medicine, obstetrics-gynecology, and pediatric dentistry at Strong Memorial Hospital and Rochester General Hospital. He founded a pediatric emergency medicine fellowship training program and established fellowship training with children’s hospitals in Israel, Russia, Poland, and Africa. Dr. Hoekelman served as a medical consultant and visiting professor to over 25 institutions worldwide throughout his career. He was the editor of 13 medical textbooks and five medical journals, and he authored over 250 textbook chapters and monographs, as well as articles and editorials in scientific journals
Dr. Hoekelman was the primary faculty mentor for a program called Pediatric Links with the Community/Child Advocacy Resident Education Track, which places residents, fellows, and medical students in community-based agencies in the Rochester area. The program, which focuses on children who lack access to care, has become a national model for training future physicians in how to practice community pediatrics. In March 2013, the program was renamed “The Hoekelman Center.” Dr. Hoekelman received numerous awards and honors throughout his career, including the American Academy of Pediatrics Lifetime Achievement Award in Medical Education in 1998.
Dr. Hoekelman also served as medical director of the Ontario County Physically Handicapped Children’s Program from 1965 to 2003, medical director of the Ontario County Public Health service from 1999 to 2003, and school physician of the Canandaigua City School District for seven years.
Hoekelman was the youngest member of the DMS Class of 1948, which inspired his classmates, in good humor, to take out a life insurance policy on him worth $10,000 to benefit the medical school. At their 50th Reunion in 1998, the class voted to surrender the policy early and combine the payout with contributions from other class members to establish the Harry W. Savage DC’26, DMS’27 Scholarship Fund as the class’s gift to the medical school.
Dr. Hoekelman was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Ann, in 2006. He is survived by their four daughters—Gretchen, Kathryn, Jane, and Alison “Sally”—and eight grandchildren.
Return to top
Harvey N. Mandell
DMS '48
Harvey (“Red”) Mandell, a retired internist, died on April 2, 2011, at the age of 86. Dr. Mandell loved the practice of medicine and often remarked that there was no career that could have made him happier.
Dr. Mandell attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School under the V-12 Navy College Training Program, serving in the U.S. Navy as an ensign from 1944 to 1946. He received his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1950. He then interned at Rhode Island Hospital, followed by residency training at St. Louis City Hospital, where he was appointed chief resident on the Washington University medical service.
In 1954, he and his wife, Marjorie, returned to his hometown of Norwich, Connecticut, where he opened a private practice in internal medicine and joined the medical staff of The William W. Backus Hospital. For 25 years, Dr. Mandell spent his day off teaching medical students at Yale University, where he was an associate professor of clinical medicine and where he continued to add to his personal medical knowledge by joining medical rounds on the gastroenterology service on the same day. He was named Internist of the Year by the Connecticut Society of Internal Medicine in 1975.
Dr. Mandell gave up his private practice in 1976, when he was named medical director at The William W. Backus Hospital. He went on to become the hospital’s first vice-president for medical affairs – a position he enjoyed until his retirement in 1994.
Dr. Mandell was co-author with his Yale colleague, Dr. Howard Spiro, of the book, When Doctors Get Sick (1987). This compilation of personal accounts by physicians who had been ill, included his own essay about his experience with melanoma in his late thirties. A member of the American Medical Writers Association, Dr. Mandell also wrote a monthly column, "Physician at Large," in the journal Post Graduate Medicine, served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, and was book review editor for the Journal. As class secretary for his DMS class from 1998 until the time of his death, he also wrote regularly for DMS Alumni News & Notes.
Although Dr. Mandell modestly described himself “an obscure New England country doctor,” he was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a past president of its Connecticut chapter, and a recipient of ACP’s Distinguished Laureate Award. He was also a member of the American Society of Internal Medicine and a past president Connecticut Society of Internal Medicine.
He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Marjorie; his sons Ross, Marc, and David, and his daughter-in-law, Aida.
Return to top
Norman W. Saunders
DMS '48
Norman W. Saunders ’48, a retired doctor of internal medicine who took a special interest in the treatment of diabetes, died on October 21, 2009. He was 83 years old.
He graduated from both Dartmouth College and DMS in 1948 and received his MD from Harvard in 1950. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Rhode Island Hospital and a fellowship at Johns Hopkins. His training was interrupted by two years of service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps as a battalion surgeon in Korea.
Upon his return, Dr. Saunders began his career at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn. In 1962, he joined Internal Medical Associates in Portland, Maine, and he practiced there until his retirement in 1993. He was a senior attending physician at Mercy Hospital and Maine Medical Center, where he directed the diabetes program. He taught as an associate clinical professor of medicine at Tufts University and at the University of Vermont. He was a director of the New England Diabetes Association and chaired the Dietary Advisory Committee and the Medical Evaluation Committee for the American Board of Internal Medicine. He was a member of the American Diabetes Association, the American Medical Association, and the American College of Physicians.
Dr. Saunders is survived by his wife, Martha; three sons—Norman (DC ’76), Nicholas, and Nathan; five grandchildren; and brothers Preston (DC ’52) and Timothy. He was predeceased by his son, Neal, in 1995.
Return to top
David W. Heusinkveld, Jr.
DMS '49
David W. Heusinkveld, a retired surgeon, died on December 31, 2011, at the age of 84.
The son and grandson of physicians, Dr. Heusinkveld had decided at a young age that he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, a respected chest specialist, and his grandfather, who practiced medicine out of his home. He received his undergraduate degree in pre-med from Dartmouth College while earning a diploma from Dartmouth Medical School. He received his MD from Harvard in 1951. Following medical school, Dr. Heusinkveld joined the Air Force, where he was commissioned as a first lieutenant and spent two years as a flight surgeon, based in Germany. By befriending the pilots he cared for, he was often able to get a space on flights, and as a result, he traveled extensively during that time.
Following his military service, Dr. Heusinkveld completed his internship and a residency in general surgery at Salt Lake County General Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. During that time, he supplemented his income by joining the Utah Air National Guard, where he rose to the rank of captain. In 1959, he established a solo surgical practice in Lewiston, Idaho, and became affiliated with St. Joseph Regional Medical Center. Dr. Heusinkveld, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, was known as a dedicated physician, who not only made house calls, but visited all of his patients on a daily basis, including weekends and holidays. He retired in 1989.
Dr. Heusinkveld is survived by two sons, Jake and Hank; his daughter, Sally; and seven grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother, Kennon D. Heusinkveld, DC ’52.
Return to top
Robert C. Joy
DMS '49, HS 1951-1953
Robert C. (Bob ) Joy, a pediatrician beloved by generations of children and their families in the Danbury, Ct., area and an advocate for children, died on November 5, 2009 at the age of 86.
Joy entered Dartmouth College with the Class of 1945, but his undergraduate education was interrupted by World War 11, and he left in the spring of his sophomore year to serve in the U.S. Army. He returned to Hanover in the fall of 1945, and finished his undergraduate degree in 1948 and his DMS diploma a year later. After completing his MD at McGill University, Dr. Joy returned to Hanover for an internship and a year of pediatric residency at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital. He completed a second year of pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital, Louisville, Ky.
In 1954, he and his wife, Nancy, moved to Danbury, Ct., where he established a general pediatrics practice and joined the staff of Danbury Hospital. Over the course of almost 40 years there, he would go on to serve as director of newborn services, senior attending pediatrician and chair of the hospital’s Child Advocate Committee. He was a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
During his early years in Danbury, Dr. Joy pursued further training in the area of pediatric cardiology at Yale-New Haven Hospital. In 1973-74, he took additional training in neonatology at Yale-New Haven’s Newborn Special Care Unit, Yale-New Haven Hospital. He became the first neonatologist at Danbury Hospital and established the neonatology department there. In the late 1970’s, Dr. Joy undertook a fellowship in developmental pediatrics at the Grover Powers Clinic for children with developmental disabilities at Yale University’s Child Study Center and began working part-time in the state-funded Danbury Child Development Clinic.
Following his retirement from practice in 1993, he remained active in the arena of child advocacy. With his wife, Nancy, he was a founding member of the Families Network of Western Connecticut (previously Healthy Families Network). He served on the boards of the Danbury Regional Child Advocacy Center and the Danbury Regional Commission on Child Care, Rights and Abuse. In 2003, Dr. Joy received an official citation from the General Assembly of the State of Connecticut for his “five decades of outstanding service and advocacy on behalf of Connecticut’s children.”
He was predeceased by his wife, Nancy in May of 2009. He is survived by his son, Christopher and daughter in law Cathy Velenchik Joy; his daughter Kathleen Cotton and son-in-law Fred Cotton; his daughter Susan Martin-Joy, and three grandchildren.
Return to top
John C. Tower
DMS '49
Dr. John C. Tower, who became the Alaska territory’s first pediatrician in private practice in 1954, died on June 17, 2011 at the age of 85.
A native of Connecticut, Dr. Tower attended Dartmouth College, where his studies were interrupted by service in the Army as a member of the 3rd Armored Division during World War II. After graduating from Dartmouth in 1947 with an A.B. in Biology and Zoology, he went on to Dartmouth Medical School. He earned his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1951. Following his residency in pediatrics at Grace New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., he and his wife, Betsy, also a physician, moved to Anchorage at the urging of pioneering Alaskan physician Dr. C. Earl Albrecht, who was serving as the territory’s first full-time health commissioner at the time.
Dr. Tower wrote that when he arrived in Alaska, “infectious disease, particularly among the natives, was rampant…” He made the first diagnoses in Alaska of Kawasaki disease, Reye’s syndrome, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome. Dr. Tower initially practiced out of his home, but soon met another pediatrician, Dr. Helen S. Whaley, with whom he founded the Anchorage Pediatric Group in 1956. By the time he retired in 1991, the practice had grown to include six pediatricians. During the early years of the practice, the newly opened Bureau of Indian Affairs Hospital had only three physicians and no pediatricians, so Dr. Tower and Dr. Whaley volunteered as “pediatric consultants.” They made rounds there after busy days at the clinic, attending up to 150 hospitalized and often severely ill native children from all over the territory.
In addition to his practice, Dr. Tower served as chief of pediatrics at Providence Hospital and the former Presbyterian Hospital (now Alaska Regional Hospital), both in Anchorage. At Providence Hospital, he was also chief of staff and instrumental in the creation of the neonatal intensive care unit there. Dr. Tower was past president of the North Pacific Pediatric Society and continued his interest in native health issues through work on the Indian Health Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics. As a longtime member of the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Commission, he was instrumental in getting signs posted along Anchorage’s bike trails encouraging riders to “Save a Brain, Wear a Helmet.”
Dr. Tower was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Elizabeth (Betsy), in 2010. He is survived by his daughters Chris and Alice; and his sons Stephen (DC ’79, HS ’84) and Charles; and six grandchildren.
Return to top