In Memoriam
Faculty
The obituaries below are listed in alphabetical order. To go directly to any individual obituary, click on the name here.
C. Everett Koop
Leta Bagdon
Betty Q. Banker
Bernard J. Bergin, PhD
George F. Cahill, Jr.
Dennis J. Carlson
Edwin L. Child
Nelson M. Chitterling
John H. Copenhaver, Jr.
Gibbons Gray Cornwell III
Robert W. Crichlow
Walter Lewis Eaton, Jr.
Frances W. Field
Bernard Gert
Nathan A. Geurkink
Edward D. Harris, Jr., DMS '60
Mahlon B. Hoagland
Brent A. Homoleski
Warner E. Jones
John A. Kelly
Frances V. McCann
Jack L. McCleery
Robert W. McCollum, Dean Emeritus
Robert D. Meyers
Lafayette Hachiro Noda
Robert E. Nye, Jr.
Howard M. Rawnsley
John R. Sibley
Thomas J. Sullivan
Leta Bagdon
Leta Bagdon, a pioneer in the field of developmental pediatrics, died on February 19, 2012, at age 82. She was on the DMS faculty from 1994 to 1999.
Dr. Bagdon attended Duke University, Columbia University, and then New York University Medical School, earning her MD in 1955. She trained at Jacobi Hospital in Bronx, NY, and became one of earliest developmental pediatricians, before the subspecialty was established. She cared for thousands of children at United Hospital in Newark, NJ, where she was director of developmental pediatrics. She was also on the teaching staff of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, also in Newark.
As a child, she spent summers in New Hampshire and continued to vacation in the North Country with her husband Robert Bagdon, PhD, and their children. In 1994, she moved to Lyman, NH, and began seeing patients at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Five years later, she retired. She also taught in the Hebrew School of the Bethlehem, NH, Hebrew Congregation.
Dr. Bagdon is survived by her son Samuel, daughter Judith, and six grandchildren.
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Betty Q. Banker
Betty Banker, professor emerita of pathology, died on February 7, 2010 at the age of 88.
Dr. Banker earned her MD from Albany Medical College in 1950, followed by residencies at Harvard Medical School and a fellowship at Yale School of Medicine. She then became an instructor at Harvard Medical School. During these early years of her career she worked with the renowned neurologists Derek Denny-Brown and Raymond Adams and developed an interest in neuropathology—especially the pathology of muscle. This remained her research specialty, and she went on to publish numerous papers on muscle disease, particularly the muscular dystrophies. Dr. Banker started the first neuropathology laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital, and later, one at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital.
In 1962, she and her husband, neurologist Maurice Victor, accepted professorial appointments at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. They remained there until 1986, when Dr. Victor retired as chair of neurology at Case Western Reserve and was appointed distinguished physician emeritus at the White River Junction, Vt., VA Hospital and Dr. Banker joined the DMS faculty, where she continued her research in muscle disorders.
Dr. Banker is best known for co-authoring the two-volume book Myology (1974), considered the standard reference on muscle, with Dr. Andrew G. Engle. In 1987 the second edition of Myology won the book award of the American Medical Writers Association Award for best medical book in the physicians category. Myology was followed by Myology II in 1994.
Dr. Banker was predeceased by her husband in 2001. She is survived by a son, Benjamin, and two grandsons, Samuel and Nathan.
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Bernard J. Bergin, PhD
Bernard J. Bergin, Ph.D., a longtime professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School and professor of sociology at Dartmouth College, died at the age of 81 on August 1, 2011.
Born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., Dr. Bergin earned a BA from City College of New York after serving a tour of duty in Korea as a U.S. Air Force weatherman. He went on to earn his PhD in sociology from Harvard in 1962. That same year, he accepted his first full-time faculty position at Yale University. Dr. Bergin arrived at Dartmouth with his family in 1966 to join the relatively new Department of Psychiatry. He helped to establish the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Mental Health Center in 1968. From the late ‘70s until 1986, he also served as a psychotherapist for Dick’s House, Dartmouth’s student infirmary.
In 1970, Dr. Bergin was instrumental in setting up the nation’s first television consultation service between mental health professionals and primary care physicians. At the time, doctors in Claremont, N.H., were concerned about their ability to respond to patients who presented with mental illness, and, with federal funding and help from AT&T, the Department of Psychiatry inaugurated a 24-hour on-call service for the Claremont physicians. Their patients could be interviewed and diagnosed by DMS psychiatrists via a closed television network.
In 1974, Dr. Bergin obtained a grant from the National Institutes on Mental Health to establish courses in human behavior for first- and second-year medical students, and he himself directed the second-year course. The courses continued until 1981, developing ever stronger medical leanings. Dr. Bergin relinquished his duties at DMS in 1990 in order to devote more time to teaching at the College; he retired with emeritus status in the summer of 1993.
Dr. Bergin was the author of numerous journal articles and conference papers, as well as five books on topics relating to healthcare, the sociology of medicine, Jewish identity, and the Holocaust.
He is survived by Vera, his wife of 58 years; his daughter, Elizabeth, and son Paul.
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George F. Cahill, Jr.
Dr. George F. Cahill, Jr., a former Dartmouth biology professor and renowned diabetes researcher, died of complications of pneumonia on July 30, 2012, in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He was 85 years old.
Dr. Cahill entered Yale at the age of 16 and graduated with the class of 1949. He earned an MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1953 and began researching metabolism and diabetes at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s) in Boston. He went on to become a professor of medicine at Harvard and taught there until he retired in 1990. From 1962 until 1978, he was also director of research at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. In addition, he was a researcher and administrator for Howard Hughes Medical Institute, serving as the organization’s director of research in 1978, vice president in 1985, and senior scientist in 1989. During those years, he made many important discoveries about the role of insulin in the body, as well as glucose and protein metabolism in diabetes, starvation, and normal physiology.
Also of note, Dr. Cahill used data from his research on metabolism and starvation to help the military formulate high-energy bars for emergency rations. During the 1980s, he was called as an expert witness by the prosecution for the two trials of Claus von Bulow, the Newport, Rhode Island man who was accused of trying to kill his wife with insulin.
In 1989, Dr. Cahill left the Howard Hughes and moved with his wife to Stoddard, NH, where they had property. Shortly thereafter, he began teaching a biology course for nonscientists at Dartmouth College as a professor of biological sciences. His course was reported to be so popular that within days of his first lecture, the class had to be moved from a room that held 100 to an auditorium that seated more than 400 students. He taught this course for seven years and received a teaching award from the students. He retired completely in 1996.
Throughout his career, Dr. Cahill was the author and co-author of nearly 200 articles in scientific journals and books. He was recognized with many honors and awards, including a symposium held in his honor at Joslin in November 2006.
Dr. Cahill is survived by four daughters, Elizabeth, Colleen, Sarah “Rhett,” and Eva; two sons, Peter and George III; and 15 grandchildren. His wife of 60 years, Sarah duPont Cahill, died in 2010.
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Dennis J. Carlson
Dennis J. Carlson died at his home in Swanzey, New Hampshire, on September 28, 2012, at the age of 79. He was a retired pathologist who had been an assistant professor of pathology at Dartmouth Medical School (now the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth).
Dr. Carlson earned a BS in chemistry from the College of Wooster in 1955 and an MD from Case Western Reserve University in 1959. Following a rotating internship at University Hospitals of Cleveland, he completed a residency in pathology at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in 1964. From 1964 to 1966, he served in the U.S. Air Force at Wright Paterson Air Force Base. He then began his medical career, as the northeast regional commissioner for the Clinical Laboratory Inspection and Accreditation Program of the College of American Pathologists.
Dr. Carlson was board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, nuclear medicine, and forensic medicine. In 1981, he co-founded Seacoast Pathology in Exeter, New Hampshire, and while there practiced at Exeter Hospital and at hospitals in Newburyport and Amesbury, Massachusetts. He also served as the medical examiner across most of southern New Hampshire for several years. He later practiced in Keene, New Hampshire, and at DHMC. He was a member of the College of American Pathologists, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the Society of Nuclear Medicine, and the National Association of Medical Examiners. In the mid-70s, he was active in the New Hampshire legislature representing the New Hampshire Medical Society.
Dr. Carlson is survived by Susan, his wife of 58 years; their children Cynthia, John, Heather, Tracy, and Laurie; and five grandchildren.
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Edwin L. Child
Edwin L. Child, an obstetrician/gynecologist and DMS assistant professor, died on February 14, 2009, at the age of 78. Dr. Child was one of the physicians who founded the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic in Manchester, NH, in 1984.
He graduated from MIT in 1952, received his MD from Yale in 1956, and earned an MPH from Harvard in 1959. After his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Yale from 1961 to 1964, he worked at Hawaii Permanente Medical Group and at Group Health in Washington, D.C. He came to Manchester in 1969, and in the course of his career there he delivered thousands of babies. Dr. Child was the first obstetrician/gynecologist in southern New Hampshire to use laparoscopy in his practice. He also made medical mission trips to Jamaica, Kenya, and Liberia, teaching doctors and treating the poor.
He was a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Surgeons, the American Association of Gynecological Laparoscopists, and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; sons Stephen (DMS ’86) and Ted; daughters Karen and Marybeth; and 12 grandchildren.
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Nelson M. Chitterling
Nelson M. Chitterling, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist and member of the DMS faculty from 1992 to 1998, died on July 28, 2010. He was 80 years old.
Dr. Chitterling earned his MD at Jefferson College in Philadelphia in 1956, followed by an internship at Mountainside Hospital in Glen Ridge, N.J., and an OB-GYN residency at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. During his residency years, he also served for two years in the U.S. Army as a captain in the Medical Corps.
Upon completing his training in 1962, Dr. Chitterling established a private practice as a general OB-GYN in Annapolis, Md. During his more than 20 years in private practice, he also served as associate chief and then chief of the OB service at Anne Arundel General Hospital in Annapolis from 1971 to 1977. Dr. Chitterling was a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of numerous medical societies including the American Fertility Society, the American Medical Association, and the Southern Medical Association.
In 1985, Dr. Chitterling and his wife, Helen, retired to Wilmot, N.H. He remained active in medical affairs, not only teaching at DMS, but also serving on the board of trustees of New London Hospital in New London, N.H., from 1987 to 1990 and as a trustee of the New Hampshire Municipal Association Health Insurance Trust from 1989 to 1998, including six years as its chair.
He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Helen (Walsh) Chitterling; eight children—Laurie Simpson, Leslie Velasco, Carin Bisland, Christopher Chitterling, Karen Shepherd, Joseph Kettinger, Kathleen Kettinger, and Steven Kettinger; 19 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
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John H. Copenhaver, Jr.
Professor emeritus John H. Copenhaver, Jr., PhD, died on April 19, 2011, at the age of 88. An influential and highly esteemed professor of biology and of biochemistry, Dr. Copenhaver was one of a new wave of young faculty members hired in the 1950s by then President John Sloan Dickey.
A Nebraska native, Dr. Copenhaver served in the U.S. Navy as a radio operator on a destroyer in the North Atlantic from 1940 to 1043. Following active duty, the Navy sent him to Dartmouth College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1946, taking only three years to earn a degree in zoology. He then attended medical school for a year, but decided to go into teaching instead. He received his PhD in zoology from the University of Wisconsin in 1950 and joined the biology department at Dartmouth in 1953 as an assistant professor. He became a full professor in 1960.
Dr. Copenhaver was instrumental in modernizing the biology department, combining the zoology and botany departments, transforming the subjects that were taught, and helping to recruit new faculty. He also held a faculty appointment in the biochemistry department and was involved in the development of Dartmouth’s biochemistry graduate program. In the 1970s, he helped to recruit students to Dartmouth Medical School when it was undergoing the transition from a two-year program to a three-year and then a four-year school.
As a teacher, Dr. Copenhaver had a reputation for being down-to-earth, approachable, and supportive of his students. He had a profound influence on many, including William H. Thomas, MD (DC ’52, DMS ’59), who established the John H. Copenhaver, Jr. and William H. Thomas, MD Junior Fellowships Fund in recognition of Dr. Copenhaver’s mentorship and the subsequent lifelong friendship between the two men. The endowment supports fourth- and fifth-year PhD candidates in Dartmouth’s molecular and cellular biology graduate program.
In addition to teaching, Dr. Copenhaver was an active member of College faculty and governing committees and served on the search committee that selected John Kemeny as College president in 1970. He retired from the College in 1987, after 34 years of distinguished service.
Dr. Copenhaver is survived by his wife, Marion; their five children, John III (DC ’72), Margaret, Christine, Eric (DC ’76), and Lisa (DC ’77); and several grandchildren.
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Gibbons Gray Cornwell III
Dr. Gibbons “Gibb” Gray Cornwell III, a professor emeritus of pathology and medicine at the Geisel School and former acting medical director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, died at DHMC on February 3, 2013. He was 80 years old.
A native of West Chester, Pennsylvania, Dr. Cornwell graduated from Phillips Andover in 1950 and Yale University in 1954. He then spent four years in the US Air Force, where he trained as an F86F jet fighter pilot. In 1959, Dr. Cornwell entered medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and early on decided on a career that would combine patient care with research and teaching. His fellowship training included a year working as a hematologist at Addenbrooks Hospital in Cambridge, England. He joined the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School in 1967, spending two years as a research fellow in biochemistry. In 1976, Dr. Cornwell and his family spent a sabbatical year in Oslo, Norway, and in the 1980s and 1990s, he spent time in laboratories in Uppsala and Linkoping, Sweden, conducting research in the field of amyloidosis. Dr. Cornwell also served as acting chair of the Department of Medicine and an associate dean at Dartmouth Medical School. He retired in 1995.
Interested in computers from their earliest days, Dr. Cornwell devoted much of his retirement to computing. His major retirement effort—one that he actually began 10 years before—was the development of three computer-based, animated, interactive programs on immunoglobulin designed for second-year medical students at Dartmouth.
Dr. Cornwell is survived by his wife of 54 years, Mary; their son, Gibbons “Gray” Cornwell IV and his wife, Kitty; two daughters, Heidi Trout (and her husband, Bruce) and Holly Cornwell; four grandchildren; a sister, Ann Cornwell Hemphill; and brothers William and Timothy. He was predeceased by his brother Daniel in 2011.
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Robert W. Crichlow
Robert “Bob” “Crich” W. Crichlow, emeritus professor of surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and former chair of surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, died at the age of 80 on November 13, 2012. He died at his home in Kendal at Hanover of congestive heart failure.
Dr. Crichlow graduated from Haverford College with an AB in 1953 and earned an MD in 1957 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (now the Perelman School of Medicine). He completed his training in surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center, serving as chief resident during his final year. Following his residency, he remained at Penn where he practiced general surgery and was a member of the faculty.
In 1972, Dr. Crichlow joined the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School and was part of the school’s transition from a two-year school to an MD-granting institution. He served on the surgical design and planning committees for the new Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, and he was instrumental in the establishment of the center’s advanced response team (DHART) and helicopter transport system.
As chair of surgery, Dr. Crichlow helped lay the groundwork for renal transplantation at DHMC, and with industry support, he set up a program to train surgeons in advanced laparoscopic techniques. As a surgeon and teacher, he established research opportunities for residents and derived great satisfaction from introducing medical students to the practice of surgery and the challenges of caring for very sick patients.
Dr. Crichlow served as secretary and later president of both the New England Surgical Society and Eastern Surgical Society. He chaired study sections for the National Institutes of Health and for an advisory committee of the American Cancer Society. After his retirement 1995, he became a member of the medical review subcommittee of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine. He was also a member of the D-H Assembly of Overseers from 1993 to 2004.
Dr. Crichlow is survived by his wife of 56 years, Marilyn; a daughter, Beth; sons Bob and Brooks; six grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and one step-great-granddaughter.
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Walter Lewis Eaton, Jr.
Walter ("Bud") Eaton, Jr., a retired radiation oncologist and emeritus member of the DMS faculty, died on March 8, 2011, of a malignant brain tumor. He was 77.
Dr. Eaton was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He interned at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and did his residency in radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he later trained in therapeutic radiology. Between 1964 and 1966 he served with the U.S. Navy at Chelsea, Mass., as a radiologist in nuclear medicine and radiation therapy. Upon leaving the service, he returned to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor of therapeutic radiology.
In 1972, Dr. Eaton moved to Hanover to take a position as a radiation oncologist at the newly established Norris Cotton Cancer Center, where he remained until his retirement in 1997. He chaired the Radiation Oncology Section from 1991 to 1997 and during this time was instrumental in planning the Radiation Oncology Department at the new Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon. His primary medical interests were lung cancer, pediatric oncology, and quality assurance. As a doctor he found it personally rewarding to be able to get to know his patients and offer them hope.
Dr. Eaton was a faculty member at Dartmouth Medical School throughout his career in Hanover, rising from assistant professor to associate professor and retiring with emeritus status in 1998. He also served on the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Assembly of Overseers.
Dr. Eaton was a fellow of the American College of Radiology; a past president of the New England Cancer Society; and an active member of the New England Society of Radiation Oncologists, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the Radiological Society of North America. He held many administrative and research positions with the national research group Cancer and Leukemia Group B—most notably as chair of its radiation therapy committee and of its quality assurance committee. He was also a member of the national Pediatric Oncology Group’s brain tumor committee.
Dr. Eaton is survived by Katie, his wife of 54 years; his two sons—Derek and his wife, Elaine Reardon, and Scott and his wife, Eliana; and three grandchildren—James, Josh, and Kate. A memorial service will be held on May 7, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at the Norwich Congregational Church in Norwich, Vt.
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Frances W. Field
Frances W. Field, RN, the first nurse to be named to the DMS faculty and an assistant professor emerita, died on January 27, 2011. She was 95.
A year-long battle with osteomyelitis at age 12 inspired Field’s life-long involvement with nursing and health. She graduated from Vassar College in 1936 and, after receiving a master's in nursing from Case Western Reserve, worked for the Henry Street Settlement House in New York City as a public health nurse. She married physician Albert S. Field Jr. in 1940.
Following her husband’s death in 1962, Field, then age 47, returned to work as a public health nurse in Wallingford, Conn., where she was living at the time. Soon afterwards, she became executive director of the Visiting Nurse Association there. In 1967, she relocated to Hanover to accept a job at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital as its first discharge planner. She went on to become an assistant professor of maternal and child health at Dartmouth Medical School, bringing her community health perspective to the curriculum as the first nurse hired to the Medical School faculty.
Field also served on a number of state health committees, including the New Hampshire State Advisory Commission on Health and Welfare. She worked with colleagues to set up well-child clinics and was an early proponent of standardizing the sharing of medical information between doctors and visiting nurses. She and several DMS and DHMC colleagues received the 1978 C. Henry Kempe Award for the best paper on child abuse and neglect at the National Conference on Child Abuse and Neglect. The paper described a training program established at DHMC in 1976 to help child abuse field workers cope with the stresses of the job. In 1978, Field helped to found Hospice of the Upper Valley, now the Visiting Nurse Association & Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire. That same year, she retired from DMS with emeritus status in 1978.
In retirement, Field devoted her considerable energies to the organic farm she established in Lebanon, N.H., with some younger friends, and to the Upper Valley Land Trust, which she and others established in 1985. “Could anything be more relevant to world health than the right kind of farming, a right relationship to the life of this precious planet?” wrote Field in an essay for the Vassar College alumni magazine.
Field’s commitment to community health is reflected in the “Community Health Care Education Endowment,” which she established at DMS in 2003 to support community-oriented and community-based education at DMS. “Doors are opening between the worlds of ‘medicine’ and ‘community healthcare,’ calling attention to the fact that the health of each of us is nurtured by the good work done in both places,” wrote Field at the time.
Fran is survived by her children—Sarah, Rebecca, and Allyn; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A celebration of her life will take place on Saturday, May 14 at 2:00 pm in the Dwinell Room at Harvest Hill retirement community in Lebanon, N.H.
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Bernard Gert
Bernard Gert, one of the best known moral philosophers of the 20th century, died on December 24, 2011, at age 77. Gert was an adjunct professor of psychiatry at DMS, as well as the Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Emeritus, at Dartmouth College. He taught at Dartmouth for 50 years.
Gert earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Cincinnati in 1956 and a Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1962. He joined the Dartmouth College faculty in 1959 and became an adjunct professor at DMS in 1976. Gert taught all over the world, as a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University, Edinburgh University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Nacional Universidad de La Plata and Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina, and Australian National University. Most recently, he became a research professor in the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. During his career, he also received two Fulbright Awards, an honorary doctorate from the University of Cincinnati, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. From 1990 to 1993, he served as the principal investigator for the NIH-funded research project “Ethical Issues Arising from the Human Genome Project.”
Gert was one of the founding members of the ethics committee at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, and he continued in this line of work in his final years, as a consultant to the ethics committee at the University of North Carolina Hospital, where he died.
Gert is survived by Esther, his wife of 53 years; his daughter, Heather; his son, Joshua; his son-in-law, John Roberts; his daughter-in-law, Victoria Costa; and his granddaughter, Susanna. There will be a memorial service late in the summer of 2012, in Hanover, NH.
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Nathan A. Geurkink
Nathan A. Geurkink, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon and former chief of the Section of Otolaryngology and Audiology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, died on May 29, 2010. He was 76 years old.
During his 35 years at DHMC, Dr. Geurkink held various staff and faculty appointments, including that of associate professor of surgery and a 15-year tenure as section chief for Otolaryngology and Audiology from 1980 to 1995. He was named to emeritus status upon his retirement in May 2005.
A native of Oklahoma, Dr. Geurkink earned his MD from the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine in 1959. He then spent two years (1960-62) in the U.S. Public Health Service Division of Indian Health, working at the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico. This was followed by his residency in otolaryngology—with a specialty in head and neck cancer surgery—at the Mayo Clinic. He spent four years on the staff of the Cleveland Clinic before coming to Dartmouth in 1970.
Dr. Geurkink was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and a former president of the New England Otolaryngology Society.
He is survived by his wife, Kate; his daughters Katrina Geurkink and Lise Neer and her husband Joe; his son Jonathan Geurkink and his wife Kaarina Merikaarto; and two grandchildren; as well as his brother Jack Geurkink, his sister Shirley Hann, and many other members of his extended family.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Renal Cancer Research Fund at Norris Cotton Cancer Center (One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756), or to VNA Hospice (PO Box 976, White River Junction, Vt. 05001).
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Edward D. Harris, Jr
DMS '60
Edward (Ted) Harris, Jr., an internationally recognized rheumatologist and former professor of medicine at DMS, died on May 21, 2010 at the age of 73.
Dr. Harris was a member of the Dartmouth College class of 1958 and was awarded the Dean’s Medal while at DMS. In 1960 he met Sir George Pickering when the distinguished Oxford professor, known for his studies of hypertension and the physiology of blood vessels, participated in the Great Issues of Conscience in Modern Medicine symposium at DMS. The following summer, he accepted Pickering’s invitation to do a summer clerkship in Pickering’s lab at Oxford.
He went on the complete his MD at Harvard, followed by residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and two years as a clinical associate in the National Heart Institute at NIH. Returning to Mass General, he did a fellowship in rheumatology in the lab of Dr. Stephen Krane, where he investigated the mechanisms by which rheumatoid arthritis destroys joints.
In 1970, Dr. Harris was recruited to return to DMS as chief of the connective tissue disease section and an assistant professor of medicine, helping Dr. Joshua Burnett in building the rheumatology section. In 1977 he was made director of the Arthritis Research Center at DHMC and a full professor, and two years later he was named the Eugene W. Leonard Professor of Internal Medicine at DMS. He also served the school as a member of the Alumni Council, chair of the Medical School Curriculum Committee for five years, and chair of the Dean Search Committee to find a successor to Dr. James Strickler in 1980.
Among the scientists Harris recruited to DMS to do rheumatology research was Constance Brinckerhoff, PhD, now the Nathan Smith Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry at DMS and Associate Dean for Science Education. By the time Dr. Harris left DMS in 1983 to become chair of the Department of Medicine at Rutgers, he had left an indelible mark on the school, and he remained a loyal alumnus and donor.
In 1987 he was appointed chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, where he would spend the rest of his career, and the following year he was named the George DeForest Barnett Professor of Medicine. His tenure at Stanford also included serving as director of the Muscuskeletal Disease Center and director of International Medical Services. He retired to emeritus status in 2003.
Dr. Harris is widely recognized for his work in advancing the understanding of rheumatoid arthritis and the role that enzymes like collagenases and matrix metalloproteases (MMPs) play in its progression by degrading cartilage and other components of joints. In addition to the more than 200 journal articles, abstracts, reviews, and book chapters he authored, Dr. Harris co-authored the first edition of Kelly’s Textbook of Rheumatology—the leading textbook on the subject—in 1979, subsequently becoming its editor-in-chief.
In 1997 he was named executive secretary of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society and editor of its quarterly journal, The Pharos, a position he still held at the time of his death. He was also secretary of the Stanford University Senate, where his minutes were legendary for their humorous touches.
Dr. Harris was a fellow of the American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine and in 2001 was elected governor of its Northern California Region. He was also a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in London and a fellow and master of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR), serving as its president from 1985-86. In 2004 he was awarded the ACR’s distinguished rheumatologist award, and in 2007 he was recognized with the organization’s highest honor, the presidential gold medal.
He is survived by his former wife, Mary Ann Hayward; son Ned and daughter in law Edie Meacham and their children Andrew and Eliza; son Tom and daughter in law Kate Reavey and their children Maeve and Liam; and son Chandler.
A profile of Dr. Harris appeared in the Fall 2007 issue of Dartmouth Medicine.
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Mahlon B. Hoagland
Mahlon B. Hoagland, a molecular biologist and former chair of the DMS biochemistry department, died on September 18, 2009, at the age of 87. With Dr. Paul Zamecnik, DMS ‘34, Dr. Hoagland’s discoveries of transfer RNA and the mechanisms of amino acid activation revealed how information encoded in DNA is translated into protein synthesis and thus living tissue.
Dr. Hoagland received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1948. His plans to become a pediatric surgeon were disrupted by a bout with tuberculosis in 1945-46, which he caught as a fourth-year student while caring for a sick baby, and he turned to research instead. He began his research career at the Huntington Laboratories at Mass General Hospital, and worked there for nearly 20 years. It was there, working in Dr. Zamecnik’s lab, that he and Zamecnik and their colleague Dr. Mary Stephenson discovered tRNA in 1956, using the first cell-free system for studying protein synthesis.
In 1957 and 1958, Dr. Hoagland spent a year at Cambridge University in England, working with Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. James Watson, co-discoverers of the structure of DNA, who would later receive the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1962. “Hoagland’s science was world class,” said Watson upon learning of Hoagland’s death, quoted in Britain’s Telegraph newspaper. “He and Paul Zamecnik deserved to win the Nobel Prize for their fundamental work on tRNA.”
Returning to the U.S., Hoagland was appointed associate professor of microbiology at Harvard Medical School. In 1967, he joined the Dartmouth Medical School faculty as chair of the biochemistry department.
In 1970, Dr. Hoagland left DMS to become scientific director of the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology (now the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research at UMass), which his father, physiologist Hudson Hoagland, had co-founded in 1944. He served in this role for 15 years, strengthening the institution’s programs in cell biology, endocrinology, neurobiology, and reproductive biology.
Dr. Hoagland was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Franklin Medal in 1976. He was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize.
He retired to Thetford, Vermont in 1985. Dr. Hoagland is also known for his writing about scientific discovery for lay audiences. He was twice honored with the American Medical Writers Association prestigious Book Award, in 1982 and 1996. In 1998 he published the book, The Way Life Works: The Science Lover’s Illustrated Guide to How Life Grows, Develops and Reproduces, and Gets Along with Vermont illustrator Bert Dodson. He also served six years on the Dartmouth Medicine editorial board and contributed three features to the magazine over the years.
Dr. Hoagland was predeceased by his wife, Olley, in 2009. He is survived by his daughters Robin and Judy; his son Jay; five stepchildren—Jeff, Jonathan, Jim, Jeremy, and Jennifer; four grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Another daughter, Susan, died in 1973.
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Brent A. Homoleski
Brent A. Homoleski, a psychiatrist and associate professor at DMS, died on May 14, 2010 after a sudden illness. He was 35 years old.
Dr. Homoleski was a graduate of Tufts University and earned his MD at Chicago Medical School in 2003. He completed a four-year residency at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, during which he served as chief resident in psychiatry. He then went to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, NH where he was assistant chief of psychiatry. Most recently, Dr. Homoleski was a psychiatrist at New Hampshire Hospital in Concord and an associate professor at DMS. His specialty was pharmacology, and he chaired the pharmacology and teaching committee at New Hampshire Hospital.
He is survived by his wife, Karolina (Radziszewska) Homoleski; his parents, Bruce and Dianna Homoleski; a sister, Beth Ann Homoleski; his grandmother, Irene Martin; and several aunts and uncles. Memorial contributions may be made to the Heart Failure and Cardiomyopathy Awareness Program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock (One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756).
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Warner E. Jones
Warner Jones, a retired internist and former adjunct assistant professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, died on October 11, 2010. He was 74.
Dr. Jones completed pre-medical and Reserve Officer Training Corps studies at the University of New Hampshire, graduating with a BS degree in 1957, and a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He went on to earn his MD at Tufts University School of Medicine in 1961, and entered internship at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Mass.
Following internship, he started active duty with the U.S. Air Force, completing flight surgeon training at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Brooks Air Force Base, San Antonio, Tex. He then served as chief of aerospace medicine for the 26th Air Division of the Air Defense Command, which had responsibility for the United States east of the Mississippi River and ranging north to south from Greenland to Puerto Rico.
After completing a medical residency at St. Vincent Hospital in 1966, Dr. Jones moved to Charlestown, N.H., to establish a joint practice in internal medicine with Dr. Waldo Merriam, a medical school classmate. Dr. Jones started and directed the intensive care unit at Springfield (Vt.) Hospital in 1967 and directed it until the late 1970s. Meanwhile, in 1973, he moved his practice to the Springfield Hospital campus and later elected to become an employee of the hospital. From 1997 until his retirement, he was an aviation medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration. He also worked as interim director of medicine at the Soldiers Home in Bennington, Vt., during a transition in the facility's administration from 1999 to 2000.
Concurrent with his civilian practice, he returned to duty and flying status with the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1977 as the chief of aerospace medicine at the 439th Tactical Hospital, Westover Air Reserve Base, in Chicopee, Mass. In 1979, he was chosen commander of that military unit, as well as “Outstanding Officer for the Year.” In 1986, he was assigned to Malcolm Grow USAF Medical Center in Maryland as the mobilization augmentee to the Center's commander, a post he held until 1991. Beyond promotable age, he was given his choice of reassignments and elected to return to Westover Air Reserve Base where he was again appointed by the wing commander to be the medical unit's commander. He retired from this position in 1996, after 21 years of active and reserve duty. Dr. Jones was twice honored with the USAF Commendation Medical and twice received the USAF Meritorious Service Medal.
For many years he was an adjunct assistant professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and a clinical instructor in medicine for the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He was honored with the Vermont Health Care Association’s "Outstanding Physician of the Year" award in 2000. Declining health caused him to relinquish his medical practice in 2007.
Dr. Jones is survived by his wife, Barbara; his close friend and caregiver, Judith Devon; three sons—Charles and his wife, Dora Sudarsky, Warner and his wife, Joanna, and William and his wife, Melissa; and nine grandchildren.
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John A. Kelly
John A. Kelly, a pulmonologist at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, Vermont, and a member of the DMS faculty, died unexpectedly on October 14, at the age of 47.
Dr. Kelly was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, and graduated from Dublin’s Royal College of Surgeons in 1989. He came to the United States to do his residency in internal medicine in Albany, N.Y. This was followed by fellowships in pulmonary medicine at Fletcher Allen Hospital in Burlington, Vt., an in critical care medicine in Pittsburg, Pa.
In 1997, Dr. Kelly moved to Maryland to conduct research in pulmonary critical care and molecular immunology at the National Institutes of Health. For the past eight years, he practiced at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, where he had served as pulmonary section chief since 2008. He was also an assistant professor of medicine and of microbiology/immunology at DMS.
He leaves his wife, Suzanne, his son, Cian, and his daughter, Aisling. He is also survived by his two brothers-in-law, Morgan Pembroke of Dublin, Ireland, and Garrett Pembroke, of Beverly, Mass., and his three sisters, Mary Kelly of Montferrier-sur-Lez, France, and Ann Kelly and Margaret Kelly, both of Dublin, Ireland.
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Frances V. McCann
Frances V. McCann, a retired physiologist and emeritus faculty member of the Geisel School, died at home on August 1, 2012. She was 85.
McCann earned her bachelor’s degree and PhD at the University of Connecticut in 1952 and 1959, respectively, as well as a master’s degree at the University of Illinois in 1954. She joined the medical school faculty in 1959, as one of only four full-time female faculty members. She became an admired teacher and accomplished researcher over the next 37 years, retiring in 1996. Her research helped establish the role of calcium in the heart and nervous systems and contributed to an understanding of the factors that initiate and control electrical signaling in living cells. She was an established investigator of the American Heart Association and served on the National Institutes of Health Physiology Study Section, the research panel of the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council. In retirement, she joined the Assembly of Overseers for Dartmouth-Hitchcock. Until 2011, she served on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for the medical school. And she nurtured her love of scholarship by teaching and serving in the Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth (ILEAD).
McCann was also active in the local community. She was a founding trustee of the Montshire Museum of Science, a trustee of Lebanon College, a member of the League of Women Voters, a deacon of the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, and an active participant in the Piermont Congregational Church.
She was predeceased by her husband Elden J. Murray. She is survived by a step-son and step-daughter and their families, as well as a sister.
A special memorial service honoring McCann will be held at the Montshire Museum of Science on Sunday, October 21, 2012, at 1 pm, with a reception to follow.
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Jack L. McCleery
Jack L. McCleery, whose 30 years of service as a gastroenterologist at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center had a major impact on the development of the Section of Gastroenterology, died on January 17, 2011, from cancer. He was 74.
Dr. McCleery studied medicine at the University of Chicago Medical School and received his medical degree in 1962. He and his wife, Virginia, subsequently lived in Seattle, Wash., and Miami, Fla., while Dr. McCleery trained in internal medicine and served in the U.S. Public Health Service. He completed his fellowship training in gastroenterology at the University of Chicago.
Dr. McCleery joined the Hitchcock Clinic in 1969, where he played a central part in developing the Section of Gastroenterology. Together with Drs. Maurice L. Kelley, Jr. and Thomas Almy, he initiated the fellowship training program in gastroenterology. Dr. McCleery was the first to introduce modern flexible endoscopy to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Over the course of his career, he instituted innovative procedures, such as ERCP—a specialized endoscopic technique that allows imaging and therapy of the bile ducts and pancreas—which had never before been performed in Northern New England. Dr. McCleery had a special interest in caring for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, such as Crohn’s and colitis, and he participated in a landmark study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, that defined Crohn’s disease severity. Dr. McCleery served as chief of the Section of Gastroenterology at DHMC from 1988 to 1997.
In his practice of clinical internal medicine, Dr. McCleery was greatly appreciated by his patients and highly respected by his colleagues. In addition, Dr. McCleery was a beloved teacher and mentor of medical students, residents, and fellows at Dartmouth Medical School. He was an associate professor of clinical medicine and served on the DMS admissions committee. He retired with emeritus status in 1998.
He is survived by his wife, Virginia; his daughter, Lisa McCarty; his son, John McCleery; and his grandchildren, Erin McCarty, William McCarty, Samantha McCleery, and Isabel McCleery.
The family suggests memorial contributions be sent to: Gastroenterology and Hepatology Chief’s Research and Education Fund, c/o Dr. Richard Rothstein, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, One Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756.
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Robert D. Meyers
Robert D. Meyers, formerly an associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School and a physician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, passed away on July 12, 2011, at the age of 75.
Dr. Meyers earned his undergraduate degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his MD from Albany Medical College in 1961. He completed an internship at San Francisco General Hospital in 1962 before returning east to Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in 1964, where he completed a residency in internal medicine in 1967 and a fellowship in hematology in 1969.
After serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army in Frankfurt, Germany, Dr. Meyers practiced hematology and internal medicine at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.; Cape Ann Medical Center in Gloucester, Mass.; Beverly Hospital in Beverley, Mass.; and the Lahey Clinic in Burlington, Mass. The Meyers then moved to Etna, N.H., and Dr. Meyers joined the staff at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and the faculty at Dartmouth Medical School.
Dr. Meyers is survived by his wife, Fern K. Meyers; three daughters, Elizabeth, Janet, and Karen; six grandchildren; and his brother, Dr. Martin Meyers.
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Lafayette Hachiro Noda
Lafayette H. Noda, PhD, emeritus professor of biochemistry and former chairman of the biochemistry department at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, died in Hanover, NH, on February 9, 2013. He was 96.
Dr. Noda, a second-generation Japanese American (Nisei), was born in California and grew up on his family’s grape farm in a small agricultural community of Japanese immigrants. He earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkley in 1939 after graduating as valedictorian of his high school class. He was a graduate student at UCLA when the United States entered World War II and, along with other West Coast Japanese Americans, was ordered to enter an internment camp. During this time, Dr. Noda was helped by the National Japanese Relocation Council, a collective of several organizations that made it possible for Nisei students to leave the camps to attend college. He was allowed to attend Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania to finish his master’s degree. He earned a PhD in biochemistry from Stanford in 1950.
Dr. Noda worked as a research biochemist at the National Institutes of Health with Dr. Manual Morales, who was later recruited to Dartmouth Medical School to chair the biochemistry department. Dr. Noda joined Dr. Morales at Dartmouth in 1957, and he remained there until he retired in 1982 as chairman of the department. Dr. Noda successfully isolated and studied the enzymes that are now used to diagnose heart attacks and other diseases.
To honor the assistance they received from the Student Relocation Council during the War, Dr. Noda and his wife, Mayme, were part of a small group who founded the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund in 1980. The fund provides scholarship support to students of Southeast Asian heritage in underserved communities throughout the United States. While at Swarthmore, Dr. Noda volunteered with the Quakers, one of the primary organizations involved with the Relocation Council. Dr. and Mrs. Noda were committed Quakers and very active members of the Hanover Friends community.
In the early 1970s, the Nodas planted blueberries and Christmas trees on their farm in Meriden, New Hampshire, and after retirement, they farmed full-time. In later years, Dr. Noda lived in Kendal at Hanover, a continuing care retirement community. In 2012, the residents of Kendal published a book of memoirs, World War II Remembered. Dr. Noda’s story of being sent to an internment camp was included among the 56 recollections in the book and was one of four stories featured by Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News during a segment on the book that aired in February 2012. Dr. Noda was also one of two people featured in the article, “Hardy Stock,” published in the Summer 2009 issue of Dartmouth Medicine magazine.
Dr. Noda is survived by his daughter, Kesaya Noda and husband Christopher Dye of Meriden; and his son, David Noda, and wife Kay Nishiyama of New York City. He was predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Mayme, in 2006.
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Robert E. Nye, Jr.
Robert “Bob” E. Nye, Jr., emeritus professor of physiology and neurobiology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, died on October 24, 2012. He was 90 years old.
Dr. Nye was raised in London, England, where his father practiced osteopathic medicine. He graduated with an AB from the University of Ohio in 1943 and earned his MD from the University of Rochester in 1947. He interned at Strong Memorial Hospital before finishing his postgraduate studies in London.
In 1956, Dr. Nye came to Dartmouth Medical School as part of the first wave of young faculty members who were hired to help facilitate the transformation of the school from a two-year program to a four-year MD-granting institution. As a professor, he taught respiratory physiology and was a member of the respiratory physiology research group. In his clinical role, he interpreted test results in the pulmonary function laboratory and served as a member of the cardiac catheterization team. He retired in 1987.
Dr. Nye was also involved in the development of early Dartmouth Medical School publications. He founded the DMS Quarterly in 1964, but it ceased publication in 1970. In 1976, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Dartmouth Medical School Alumni Magazine (now Dartmouth Medicine) and served on its editorial board from 1979 to 1987.
Dr. Nye is survived by his wife of 64 years, Dr. Frances “Fran” T. Nye, MD, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry emerita at the Geisel School of Medicine; their two sons, David and Christopher; and seven grandchildren.
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Howard M. Rawnsley
Dr. Howard M. Rawnsley, an influential physician in the field of pathology, died at the age of 86 on April 21, 2012. He was a retired professor of pathology at Dartmouth Medical School, and during his career was chairman of the Department of Pathology, as well as medical director and senior vice president for medical affairs at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
From 1944 to 1946, Dr. Rawnsley served in World War II with the U.S. Army glider infantry. He earned an undergraduate degree from Haverford College in 1949 and an MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1952. After completing his residency at Penn, he stayed on at the school, where he became a professor of pathology, director of the William Pepper Laboratory of Clinical Medicine, and medical director of the Department of Medical Technology in the School of Allied Medical Professions. Dr. Rawnsley joined the staff at DHMC and became a member of the faculty at the Medical School in 1975. He became director of the Department of Pathology in 1980. In 1987, he was appointed medical director of DHMC and, as senior vice president for medical affairs, became a member of the DHMC Board of Trustees. He was president of the MHMH Board of Governors, and a member of the medical center’s planning and operations committee and ethics committee.
During his tenure, DHMC moved to its present site in Lebanon, and Dr. Rawnsley sought to take advantage of that opportunity to enhance the Center’s regional role in medical care. He was committed to the integration of the academic medical center and helped nurture the exchange of ideas between academic and clinical staff. He retired in 1994.
Dr. Rawnsley was also a prominent member of the College of American Pathologists (CAP), where he served as governor from 1985 to 1993 and chaired many CAP councils and committees. He was also an American Board of Pathology trustee and president of the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists and the Intersociety Pathology Council. He was a longtime member of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, and he served on several committees of the American Board of Medical Specialties. He was an active member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology and in 1995, he received the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and the College of American Pathologists for his outstanding contributions to the field. As a longtime volunteer and universal donor, he served as chairman of the New England Regional Blood Services for the American Red Cross.
Dr. Rawnsley is survived by his wife of 44 years, Eileen Fiddes Rawnsley, whom he met while volunteering on the SS Hope in Nicaragua; and their two daughters, Virgilia “Jill” and Elizabeth Sue.
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John R. Sibley
John Rawson Sibley, who devoted much of his life to teaching and leading efforts to develop community-based health care in some of the world’s most underserved regions, died at his home in Etna, New Hampshire, on June 24, 2012, at the age of 85.
Dr. Sibley’s undergraduate studies, which began at Amherst in 1943, were interrupted by his service in the U.S. Army occupation of Japan at the end of World War II. After his military service, he completed his bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University and earned his MD from Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1953. He then served an internship at Wesley Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of Northwestern. During the following six years, he completed a residency in general surgery and pathology at Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (MHMH). During that time, Dr. William Mosenthal was in the midst of establishing the first intensive care unit in the United States at MHMH, and Dr. Sibley produced a series of humorous sketches in support of Dr. Mosenthal’s idea, illustrating the chaos that often ensued when critically ill patients were admitted to the hospital. Dr. Mosenthal included some of Dr. Sibley’s sketches in presentations he gave around the country.
In 1959, Dr. Sibley began working in missionary medicine with the Presbyterian Church USA. He moved with his wife and four young children to Korea, where he served as a general surgeon at the 300-bed Presbyterian Hospital in Taegu, instructing interns and residents. He also performed facial surgeries at the 1000-patient attached leprosarium. Recognizing the need for a comprehensive community-based health care system, Dr. Sibley and his family moved to Koje Island in 1969, where he became the founding director of what’s thought to be the first community health project in Korea. In doing so, he influenced the Korean government and medical community to shift its emphasis from an expensive and more urban hospital-based system to a broader-based, comprehensive care system serving rural communities. In June of 1977, he concluded his work on the project, and after turning it over to the Koreans, he was awarded the prestigious Order of Civil Merit, Mogryeon Medal, from the Office of the President, Republic of Korea.
Returning to the United States, Dr. Sibley attended the Harvard School of Public Health and earned his M.P.H. in 1979. At the end of 1979, he traveled to Thailand, where he served for four months as medical director of Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Loei Province. He then returned to Korea for several years, where he was an associate professor of preventive medicine at Yonsei University Medical College in Seoul and a consultant in community health to the Korean Ministry of Health and Social Affairs. From 1983 to 1986, he was associated with the United Mission to Nepal, where he taught basic surgery to rural paramedical workers. He served as assistant health services secretary to the United Mission to Nepal from 1985 to 1986.
Dr. Sibley and his wife returned to the Upper Valley in 1987, where he worked in the Department of Cardiology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and was an assistant professor of community and family medicine at Dartmouth Medical School until he retired in 1993.
Dr. Sibley undertook his last volunteer overseas mission in 1998, as a member of the Church World Service for Hurricane Relief in Honduras.
Dr. Sibley is survived by Jean, his wife of 64 years; their four children, Don, Annie, Norman “Taz,” and Margaret “Meg”; seven grandchildren; his sister, Elizabeth; and brother, Donald. He arranged to have his body donated to scientific research and education, especially for the study of primary progressive aphasia, a rare speech disorder that afflicted him in the final years of his life.
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Thomas J. Sullivan
Thomas Sullivan, a former DMS faculty member and retired radiologist, died on December 7, 2010. He was 71 years old.
Dr. Sullivan attended the University of Vermont, receiving his bachelor’s degree in 1962 and his MD degree in 1968. Following his residency training in radiology at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont (now Fletcher Allen Health Care), Dr. Sullivan performed locum tenens work at hospitals across Vermont in the 1970s. He later joined the faculty of Dartmouth Medical School and practiced at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. A former colleague described him as “the consummate radiologist – well read, widely experienced, curious, and deeply committed to his specialty. He not only practiced at an extremely high level, he was facile in passing on his knowledge to his students.” In 1993, Dr. Sullivan received DMS’s Teacher of the Year Award. He retired in 2006.
Dr. Sullivan will receive a posthumous honorary degree from the University of Vermont in May, 2011. In announcing its 2011 honorees, the University described Sullivan as “a role model for aspiring physicians, [who] will be remembered for his relentless passion for improving health care and health education.”
Dr. Sullivan is survived by his life partner, Deanna Howard, and her children, Brian and Erica.
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