Obituaries
From the November ACP Observer, copyright © 2005 by the American College of Physicians.
John F. Burnum, MACP
John F. Burnum, MACP, a former Governor for the Alabama Chapter, died Aug. 5, 2005. He was 82 years old.
A native of Tuscaloosa, Ala., Dr. Burnum received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in the 1950s and returned to his hometown to start an internal medicine practice. Renowned for his bedside manner, Dr. Burnum received ACP's Ralph O. Claypoole Sr. Memorial Award in 1992 for devotion of a career in internal medicine to the care of patients. He also received the Alabama chapter's Laureate Award in 1992, as well as several other recognitions throughout his career.
Dr. Burnum spent 45 years in private practice. Following his retirement in 1999, he became a full-time faculty member at the University of Alabama's College of Community Health Sciences, which he helped establish more than 30 years ago. He continued to work until a few weeks before his death.
Dr. Burnum served as Governor for the Alabama Chapter from 1987-1991. He was elected to Fellowship in 1963 and received his Mastership in 1994.
John T. Sessions Jr., MACP
John T. Sessions Jr., MACP, a former College Regent and Vice President, died on Aug. 26, 2005. He was 83.
After receiving his medical degree, Dr. Sessions moved to Chapel Hill, N.C., where he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine. Among his accomplishments was helping found the school's gastroenterology program and training more than 100 gastroenterologists. His positions there included distinguished professor of medicine, chief of the division of gastroenterology and hepatology, and director of the school's Center for Gastrointestinal Biology and Disease.
Dr. Sessions was also an active member of the College, serving on the Board of Regents from 1978-1983 and as Vice President of the College from 1983-84. He received his Mastership in 1985.
Theodore E. Woodward, MACP
Theodore E. Woodward, MACP, a respected teacher, researcher and Nobel Prize nominee, died July 11 of heart failure at his home in Roland Park, Md. He was 91 years old.
Dr. Woodward received his medical degree in 1938 from the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Following graduation, he worked in the U.S. Army's School of Tropical Medicine where he studied infectious diseases. During World War II, he served on the U.S. Army's typhus commission and in 1945 was awarded the typhus commission medal by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
On a 1948 trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Dr. Woodward was part of a medical team that tested a new antibiotic—chloromycetin—on workers with scrub typhus. The drug proved effective not only on those workers but also on patients with typhoid fever, a major medical breakthrough. The antibiotic was also used to treat Rocky Mountain spotted fever, bacillary urinary infections and undulant fever. Dr. Woodward and his colleagues were nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries.
After leaving the Army in 1948, Dr. Woodward joined the faculty at the University of Maryland where he became chairman of the department of medicine in 1954. He retired in 1981 after almost 50 years as a teacher, clinician and researcher.
A former Governor for the College's Maryland Chapter from 1972-74, Dr. Woodward also received numerous College awards, including the James D. Bruce Memorial Award in 1970 for distinguished contributions in preventive medicine and the Distinguished Teacher Award in 1992. The Maryland Chapter created the Theodore E. Woodward Award for medical education and research in his honor.
Dr. Woodward was elected to Fellowship in 1952 and served on the Board of Regents from 1974-1979. He received his Mastership in 1980.
Contact ACP Internist
Send comments to ACP Internist staff at acpinternist@acponline.org.