Class Notes: In Memoriam

Dr. Thomas V. Allen Jr. (1973) of Little Rock, Ark., Dec. 10, 2014; age 68

Dr. Mike Campbell (1959) of Grenada, March 25, 2015; age 79

Dr. Rex Wilson Collins (1963) of Laurel, Jan. 1, 2015; age 76

Dr. Billy Herschel Cook (1976) of Jackson, April 10, 2015; age 70

Dr. Robert Dean Culpepper of Raymond (1977), Nov. 4, 2014; age 68

Dr. John Dampeer Jr. (1948) of Houma, La., March 8, 2015; age 90

Dr. G. William "Bill" Davis (1955) of Nashville, March 11, 2015; age 82

Dr. Robert Durley Dean (1949) of Columbus, Ga., Nov. 7, 2014; age 90

Dr. William Leigh "Doc" Dillard (1974) of Mansfield, La., March 14, 2015; age 67

Dr. George Russell "Rusty" Frye (1988) of Meridian, Nov. 3, 2014; age 52

Dr. Raymond Anthony Paul Gordon (1982) of Jackson, Feb. 22, 2015; age 70

Dr. John E. Harris (1955) of Tupelo, Dec. 9, 2014; age 81

Dr. William "Bill" Lynch Jr. (1959) of Madison, Feb. 1, 2015; age 81

Dr. James R. Powell (1953) of West Point; March 13, 2015; age 87

Dr. Kenneth Noel Reed (1964) of Ridgeland, March 10, 2015; age 76

Dr. Walter Thomas "Tommy" Rueff (1969) of Jackson, Nov. 19, 2014; age 71

Dr. Nell J. Ryan (1957) of Vicksburg, Nov. 14, 2014; age 86

Dr. Dickinson "Doc" Thomae (1953) of Hattiesburg, Feb. 13, 2015; age 85

Dr. Earle L. Wrenn Jr. (1945) of Greensboro, N.C., Nov. 6, 2014; age 90

Dr. Lee Hartwell Rogers

DR. LEE HARTWELL ROGERS (1960) of Tupelo died on Feb. 8, 2015 at age 80.

He was a graduate of New Albany High School, the University of Mississippi and the University of Mississippi School of Medicine. He received pre-residency training in ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and completed his surgical internship and his residency in ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee in Memphis.

He served in the U.S. Public Health Service and the U.S. Coast Guard for two years.

In 1969, Rogers joined the Tupelo Eye Center, where he practiced ophthalmology until his retirement in 2000. During his 31-year career he served many patients in north Mississippi and in 1985 became chief of staff at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo.

He was active in the Mississippi State Medical Association throughout his career and retirement, serving as chair of the association's board of trustees. His other leadership positions included president of the Northeast Mississippi Medical Society and councilor of the Southern Medical Association.

Rogers served a one-year term as president of the University of Mississippi Medical Center Alumni Association starting in 2003 and was a member of the Guardian Society, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

A member of First United Methodist Church in Tupelo, he was active as an usher, Sunday school teacher and member of the administrative board. An Eagle Scout, he worked as an advisor with Boy Scout Troop 12 and Camp Yocona.

Rogers was an active member of the Sigma Chi Alumni Association and served as president of the Tupelo Rotary Club, which selected him Rotarian of the Year and named him a Paul Harris Fellow, an honor recognizing substantial contributions to the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International.

He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Merrell Liveakos Rogers, two children and several grandchildren.

DR. ROBERT D. WILLIAMS (1965, residency) of Stockton, Calif., died on Feb. 28, 2015 at age 81.

A retired thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon who completed his residency in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at UMMC in 1965, Williams participated in the historic, animal-to-human heart transplant with UMMC's Dr. James D. Hardy in 1964.

A native of Mound City, Mo., Williams grew up in the Missouri town of Smithville and earned his M.D. at the University of Missouri (Mizzou) Medical School in 1959. He interned at Gorgas Hospital in the U.S. Panama Canal Zone before coming to UMMC for residency training in 1960.

Working under Hardy's leadership, Williams participated in the world's first heart transplant, that of a chimpanzee into a human, in 1964. For this effort, Williams received the Hektoen Silver Medal in New York.

After completing his residency, Williams returned to Smithville and practiced with the Smithville Medical Group until 1973. He relocated his practice to Kansas City, where he became a staff member at Research Medical Center, Baptist Medical Center, General Hospital, Trinity Lutheran Hospital, Menorah Medical Center and North Kansas City Hospital.

Williams was elected president of the Clay-Platte Medical Association and was a founding member and president of the Midwest Organ Bank.

He was also an associate professor of surgery at University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, where he helped train a number of medical students in surgery.

He was named director of the Vascular Laboratory at North Kansas City Hospital in 1988 and continued his practice there until his retirement in 1988. 

Dr. Fred Allison, Jr.

Dr. Fred Allison, Jr. of Nashville, Tenn., professor of medicine emeritus at Vanderbilt University and an original faculty member of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, died May 8, 2015. He was 92.

A native of Abingdon, Va., Allison was the son of distinguished Auburn physicist Dr. Fred Allison and Elizabeth Harriet Kelly. Reared in Auburn, Ala., Allison graduated from Auburn University. He served as a member of the Army Specialized Training Corps and graduated from the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1946.

Allison trained in internal medicine at Vanderbilt Hospital, Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. After specializing in virology and infectious diseases at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, he began research into cellular immunity at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

In 1955, he became one of the original faculty of the new School of Medicine at the UMMC. The Fred Allison Jr., M.D. Infectious Diseases Laboratory at UMMC bears his name.

In 1968, after a sabbatical year of study at the Rockefeller University in New York City, Allison was appointed as the Edgar Hull Professor and Head of the Department of Medicine at the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and chief of medicine at the LSU Division of Charity Hospital.

Upon retiring from LSU in 1987, Allison returned to his alma mater, Vanderbilt University, as a professor of medicine and physician-in-chief of the Nashville Metropolitan General Hospital. In 1993, he was appointed chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt, a position he had until 1996, before serving as a consultant in internal medicine for the Zerfoss Student Health Service at Vanderbilt.