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Authority record
Cardiologists

Pruitt, Raymond D.

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n2018183544
  • Person
  • 1912-1993

Dr. Raymond Donald Pruitt received the B.S. degree from Baker University, Baldwin City, Kansas, in 1933; the B.A. degree in physiology in 1936 from Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar; the M.D. degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1939; the M.S. degree in medicine from the University of Minnesota in 1944; and the M.A. degree from Oxford University in 1963. An internationally renowned cardiologist, Dr. Pruitt was Director of the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Minnesota from 1968 to 1975; Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine from 1959-1968; Vice President for Medical Affairs and Chief Executive Officer at Baylor from 1966 to 1968; Director, Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, University of Minnesota from 1968-1975; Director for Education, Mayo Foundation, from 1968 to1977; and Founding Dean of the Mayo Medical School from 1971 to 1977. He retired in July 1992 as Professor of Medicine at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, College of Medicine, and Consultant in Cardiology at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Hospital.

During his career, Dr. Pruitt was president of the Association of University Cardiologists, secretary of the American Board for Cardiovascular Disease, president of the American Osler Society, and a member of the National Research Resources Advisory council, the National Advisory Heart Council, the President’s Committee on Heart Disease, Alpha Omega Alpha, and the editorial boards of American Heart Journal (1960-1968) and Circulation (1962-1967 and 1969-1973.) From 1969 to 1970, he was chairman, Section of Internal Medicine, of the American Medical Association, and from 1968 to 1973 he was a member of Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committees.

He earned an honorary D.Sc. degree from Baker University in 1956, the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Minnesota in 1964, the Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award from the University of Kansas in 1967, the Distinguished Service Award from that same university in 1971, an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Hamline University, St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1980, and a trustee medallion from Baylor College of Medicine in 1988.

Dr. Pruitt was born February 6, 1912 in Wheaton, Minnesota and died January 14, 1993. He was preceded in death by his wife, Lillian, and was survived by his children, Virginia, Kristin, David, Charles, and grandchildren.

Adapted from Houston Medicine, June 1993, Volume 9, page 29.

Cooley, Denton A., 1920-2016

  • http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79078765.html
  • Person
  • 1920-2016

Dr. Denton A. Cooley, the founder of the Texas Heart Institute, attended the University of Texas and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he graduated in 1944. After serving in the Army Medical Corps and studying with Lord Russell Brock in London, he returned to his hometown of Houston, Texas to teach surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in the 1950s. The Texas Heart Institute was founded on August 3, 1962 in order to research and treat cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. Among many innovations developed by Cooley and his colleagues at the Institute are the first implantation of an artificial heart, the first successful heart transplant in the United States, advances in treatment of congenital defects, and a number of prostheses and implants. The Institute is part of Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the word. CHI St. Luke’s Health – Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is the Institute’s clinical partner. [Sources: Texas Heart Institute website; The Houston Review, vol. 2, no. 1, p.16-19]

Anderson, Raymond C.

  • Person
  • 1918-2008

Dr. Ray C. Anderson, MD, Ph.D, was born in Duluth, Minnesota in about 1918. He attended Gustavus Adolphus College where his undergraduate mentor Dr. J. Alfred Elson "helped him obtain a teaching assistant position at the University of Minnesota in the lab of Dr. C.P. Oliver, a leading geneticist. Anderson went on to complete his Ph.D. in Zoology (Genetics). Oliver encouraged him to apply to medical school to study the burgeoning field of medical genetics" (University of Minnesota, College of Biological Sciences: Biography, Spring 2008.)In 1946 Anderson recieved his medical degree from the University of Mainnesota, ranked first in his class.

After receiving his medical degree, Anderson accepted an internship at the University of Michigan Genetics Institute, where he met Dr. James Neel. In 1947 Dr. Anderson was obligated to enlist in the U.S. Army as a Medical Officer. In this capacity Dr. Anderson was asked by Dr. Neel if he would like to participate in a genetic study of survivors of the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, Japan. Dr. Anderson was very interested in this research, and in November 1947 Anderson traveled to Japan to join the research team at the newly-formed Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Anderson remained with the ABCC for two years. During this time he worked closely, though not always harmoniously, with Dr. Neel. Anderson contributed to a number of studies of the health of the survivors and children of the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In 1949 Ray Anderson returned to the United States, where he gravitated towards the field of pediatric cardiology. He enjoyed a long and successful career in cardiology, and was a member of the surgical team at the University of Minnesota that preformed the very first open heart surgery. He published over 135 articles over the course of his career.

Dr. Ray Anderson enjoyed a long and distinguished medical career that spanned a number of years. The collection at the John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center focuses on the brief period of Dr. Anderson's career from 1947 to 1949, when he worked with the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission.

Dr. Ray Anderson died May 20, 2008 in Sun City, Arizona, where he lived part of the year after his retirement from medicine in 1980.