Medical Author John Duffy Dies In Baton Rouge At 81
Times Picayune 06-22-1996

*************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
************************************************  

John Duffy, a historian of medicine and public health who chronicled yellow
fever, smallpox and the development of Tulane University Medical Center, died
Thursday at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge. He was 81.

Mr. Duffy, who wrote 11 books and edited two others, taught the history of
medicine and public health at Tulane, Louisiana State University, the
University of Pittsburgh, the University of Louisville, Rice University and
the University of Maryland.

At his death, he was an emeritus professor at Tulane and Maryland. He lived in
Baton Rouge for the past nine years.

A native of Barrow-in-Furness, England, Mr. Duffy became a naturalized U.S.
citizen in 1939 and received a bachelor's degree from Louisiana State Normal
College, now Northwestern State University, in 1941. He earned a master's from
LSU and a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles.

His books include "The Rudolph Matas History of Medicine in Louisiana," "Sword
of Pestilence: The New Orleans Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1853," "The Tulane
University Medical Center: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Medical Education,"
"Parson Clapp of the Strangers' Church of New Orleans" and "From Humors to
Medical Science: A History of American Medicine."

A list of his articles in professional journals and the chapters he wrote for
anthologies fills nearly five single-spaced pages.

He won the Louisiana Library Association Literary Award for the first volume
of the two-volume Matas history, the American Public Health Association's
Arthur Viseltear Award for "The Sanitarians: A History of American Public
Health," and the American Association for the History of Medicine's Continuing
Lifetime Achievement Award in the History of Medicine.

He was a university fellow at UCLA in 1945-46 and a Ford fellow at Harvard
University in 1951-52. Northwestern State University named him a distinguished
alumnus in 1986.

He was a former president of the American Association for the History of
Medicine and the Washington Society for the History of Medicine, interim
editor of American Historical Review and a member of the executive council of
the Southern Historical Association.

Survivors include his wife, Corinne Duffy; two sons, John Duffy Jr. of Baton
Rouge and James N. Duffy of Washington, D.C.; and a brother, Charles Duffy of
Woodland Hills, Calif.

A memorial service will be held today at 11 a.m. at Rabenhorst Funeral Home,
825 Government St., Baton Rouge. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m.