Frank H. Bassett, III, MD, a renowned orthopedic surgeon, Duke University’s team physician from 1966-93, and a member of the school’s Sports Hall of Fame, died March 6, 2007 at his home in Durham. He was 78. Bassett began work at Duke University Medical Center in 1963 and served in several capacities including director of the Sports Medicine Center, head team physician for Duke athletics, and professor of orthopedic surgery. He was a founding member of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and an international leader in the field of sports medicine. In December 2006 the creation of the Frank Bassett Chair in Orthopedics at Duke was announced. In 1994 Bassett was inducted into the Duke Sports Hall of Fame along with former basketball star Gene Banks, former lacrosse star Charles Gilfillan, and Olympic gold medal swimmer Nancy Hogshead. Bassett earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Kentucky in 1950 and 1951, respectively. At Kentucky he played football under legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant. In the fall of 1998 Bassett was honored with the naming of the West Campus street that leads from Science Drive to the Finch-Yeager Sports Medicine Building at Wallace Wade Stadium as Frank Bassett Drive. In 2002 Bassett received the Volunteer of the Year award from the National Association of Athletic Development Directors for his efforts in co-chairing the Duke University Football Campaign. The campaign raised more than $20 million for the Yoh Football Center that opened in fall 2002. After a stint in the U.S. military during the Korean War, Bassett graduated from the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1957 and later served his orthopedic residency at Duke in the early 1960s. Bassett is survived by his wife Ann and three children, Marshall, Lucia and F. Houston IV.

James Harvey Carter Sr., MD, HS’67-’71, died March 8, 2007 at Duke Hospital.
He was 72. Carter was a tenured professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center. He was an honors graduate of North Carolina College, now North Carolina Central University and earned his medical degree from Howard University College of Medicine and his master’s of divinity degree from Shaw University Divinity School. Carter served in the United States Army, where he was presented with numerous awards and citations including: the Army Commendation Medal, Overseas Service Ribbon, Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Meritorious Service Award with two Oak Leaf Clusters, U.S. Army Reserves 120th Army Commendation Medal for Superior Performance as commander of the 3274th U.S. Army Hospital, and many more. He was honorably discharged as a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. He was board certified as a psychiatrist, neurologist, and forensic medical examiner. Carter held a variety of distinguished positions and roles during his medical career including: senior psychiatrist for the N.C. Department
of Prisons, professor of psychiatry at Duke, visiting faculty for the Center for Continuing Education at the Southeastern School of Alcohol and Drug Studies at the University of Georgia. He published two textbooks, Psychosocial Intervention with Aged African Americans: A Primer, Vantage Press, and Death and Dying Among African Americans: Cultural Characteristics and Coping Tidbits, Vantage Press. Additionally, he wrote 57 articles in refereed journals and nine chapters in other published works. Carter is survived by his wife Elsie Richardson Carter; one son, James Harvey Carter, Jr., PA-C and wife Brigit of Hillsborough, N.C.; one daughter, Saunja Wilson and husband George; three grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Eugene J. Cornett, MD’49, a physician and surgeon in Tampa, Fla., for 32 years, died Dec. 8, 2006. He was 81. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute, now Virginia Tech University, and Emory and Henry College. He earned his medical degree at Duke. Cornett served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and again with the U.S. Army 4th Signal Battalion medical detachment on active duty in Korea from 1950-52. He earned the rank of captain. He was awarded the Korean Service Medal with five Bronze Service Stars, the United Nations Service Medal and Meritorious Unit Commendation. He completed residencies in general surgery at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville, Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., and in pediatric surgery at the Children’s Hospital of Buffalo. He began his practice in Tampa in 1957. Cornett was certified by the American Board of Surgery in 1960 and admitted as a fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1964. He became the first chief of surgery at University Community Hospital and also served as chief of staff from 1970-71. He is survived by Frederica, his wife of 50 years; three sons—Michael, Thomas, and Charles, and their wives—daughter Barbara, and 12 grandchildren.

Rajesh Das, MSIV, died Dec. 6, 2006. He was 26. Das was an aspiring surgeon whose goal was to repair facial damage in children. At Duke he had developed a software system to map a three-dimensional model of the brain to enhance our understanding of cranial surgery. He is survived by his parents—his mother Nilima, and father Shyam. Das was from California.

William J. Dignam, MD, HS’48, died Dec. 5, 2006, in Los Angeles. He was born in New Hampshire and attended Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School. He earned his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his post-doctoral training there as well as at the University of Kansas Medical Center and at Duke. Dignam also served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He joined the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1953 and was a founding member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He also served as a research associate at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and was a visiting professor at Universite Rene Descartes in Paris, France and at the University of London, England. He was a past president and then chairman of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the recipient of many awards, including honorary president of the Society of Gynecology of France, consultant to the Royal Australian College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, fellow ad eundem of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and Charter Day speaker at the National Maternity Center in Dublin, Ireland. At UCLA he was honored many times for his teaching. He received the Outstanding Teacher’s Award from the Los Angeles Obstetrical and Gynecological Society and a lifetime achievement award from the Pacific Coast Obstetric and Gynecological Society. In 2005 he was honored by UCLA with the creation of the William J. Dignam Award for Excellence in Obstetrics and Gynecology, which is given annually to the outstanding graduating medical student. Dignam is survived by his wife Winifred, four daughters—Brett, Kevan, Erin, and Meighan— two sisters, and 14 grandchildren.

Zenas W. Ford Jr., MD’46, HS’49-’50, died Dec. 16, 2006 in Newport News, Va. He was 87. He was the father of five, grandfather of nine, and great-grandfather of 16. He graduated from the University of Arkansas and earned his medical degree at Duke, where he also completed an anesthesiology residency. He served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps and Balboa Hospital in the Panama Canal Zone from 1947-49 and in Osaka, Japan from 1950-51. When he joined the Army in 1946 he recorded the Army’s highest- ever IQ score at the time. He declined a promotion to major and an administrative position and chose to continue working with patients. After a successful career in anesthesiology, in which he worked for Riverside Hospital, Langley Air Force Base, and Mary Immaculate Hospital, he retired in 1982. His wife Virginia died in 1966. He is survived by his children Zenas III, Amanda, Deborah, Heather, and Claudia.

H. James Herring, T’60, MD’64, an ophthalmologist, died unexpectedly on Sept. 26, 2006 at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, N.Y. He was 67. He was born in Durham, N.C. in 1939 to Virginia Cozart Herring and Herbert James Herring—the dean of Trinity College from 1935-46, and vice president of Duke University from 1946-64. He received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Duke and did his surgical internship at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Beginning in 1965 he served with the 8th Special Forces Unit of the U.S. Army in the Panama Canal Zone with certification in both airborne and scuba. He married Carol Peters in 1968 while completing his ophthalmology residency at Duke after returning from the service. The couple moved to upstate New York in 1970 where Herring began an ophthalmology practice in Geneva, N.Y. He is survived by his wife Carol; daughters Deborah Olsen, T’91, of Healdsburg, Calif.; Melissa Bailey of Pittsburgh, Penn.; and Rachel Sangree of Catonsville, Md.; sons-in-law Erik Olsen, Stephen Bailey, and Peter Sangree; six grandchildren; and his sister, Virginia Remmers, WC’54, of Paris, France.

Rafael R. Hernandez, T’55, MD’58, of San Juan, Puerto Rico, died Aug. 20, 2004. He was 71. Hernandez earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees at Duke as well as completing his residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at Duke. He spent three years as director of the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at the VA Hospital in Durham before returning to his native Puerto Rico, where he raised four children and practiced cardiology until his death. He is survived by Doris, his wife of 48 years; two daughters, Yvonne, T’80, and Aurora; a son Eduardo; and nine grandchildren.

Walter A. Hoyt, Jr., MD, HS’46-’49, a pioneering doctor in total hip replacement surgery, died March 18, 2007 in Fairlawn, Ohio. He was 91. During World War II as U.S. Army surgeon, Hoyt and his medical team were part of Gen. George S. Patton’s army unit and moved their hospital 19 times after D-Day as troops advanced on Germany. Hoyt graduated from Amherst College and Western Reserve University Medical School. The orthopedic surgeon practiced medicine in Akron, Ohio for four decades from 1949-89. After the war he was a hospital resident in orthopedics at Duke. He edited Emergency Care for the Sick and Injured, known as the Orange Book, which became an essential resource for paramedics and emergency medical technicians. He was the past president of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and also served as chairman of the Department of Orthopedics for Akron City Hospital. Hoyt also was one of the original professors at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. The Walter A. Hoyt, Jr. Musculoskeletal Research Laboratory at Summa’s St. Thomas Hospital is named in his honor. Hoyt is survived by his wife, Sue Butler Hoyt; three children and their spouses—Walter and Karen Hoyt III, Dave and Beth Hoyt, and Molly and Dr. Jeff Springer—and five grandchildren.

Thomas Cleveland Kerns Jr., MD’50, died March 11, 2007 at his home in Durham. He was 81. Kerns was educated in the Durham City schools, graduating from Durham High School in 1942. He graduated from UNC in 1946 and earned his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine in 1950. He interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York City from 1950-52 and then served as chief of ophthalmology at McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., as a captain in the United States Air Force. After serving two years in the air force, Kerns returned to New York Hospital as a resident in ophthalmology from 1954-56. He then returned to Durham to begin his practice at McPherson Hospital, where he worked until his retirement in 1998. Kerns was appointed as a clinical assistant professor in ophthalmology at Duke in 1981 and at Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill in 1989. He was an active member of various professional associations and societies serving as chairman of the North Carolina Commission for the Blind in 1964 and as president of the North Carolina Society of Ophthalmology in 1981. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Bernice Flowers Kerns, a native of College Park, Georgia; his sister, Mrs. Howard V. Bounds, Jr. of Roanoke Rapids; his three children Thomas Cleveland Kerns III of Durham, Suzn Kerns Stewart of Atlanta, Ga., and William Warner Kerns of Durham, and five grandchildren.

Elizabeth Hart King, WC’54, MD’58, died March 11, 2007. She was 73. Born in Durham on August 31, 1933, she graduated from Durham High School in 1950, received her undergraduate degree from Duke in 1954, and was one of the first women to attend Duke University School of Medicine where she received her medical degree in 1958. King practiced medicine at Duke University Medical Center until1997 when she opened a private practice in Cary where she continued to care for her patients until her death. In addition to Duke and her private practice, she also saw patients at the N.C. State Student Health Center for many years. Her childhood interest in Duke basketball became a passion and she established the Dr. Deryl Hart Award—named after her father—to recognize the Duke men’s basketball player with the highest grade point average. She is survived by her four sons, William King and his wife, Rheba of Concord, N.C.; Julian King and his wife, Aimee of Raleigh; John King, T’85, and his wife, Liz, of Garrett Park, Md.; and David King, T’89, and his wife, Cindy of East Lyme, Conn. She also is survived by siblings, Deryl Hart, Jr., MD’64 and his wife, Pascale of Bow, Wash.; John Hart, MD’68 and his wife, Annie, of Tucson, Ariz.; William Hart, T’67 and his wife, Ann of Lake Bluff, Ill.; and Margaret Hart, WC’68 of Stowe, Vt.; and 11 grandchildren.

Joseph H. McAlister, MD’48, of Hunts-ville, Ark. died January 24, 2007. He was 81. McAlister practiced radiology for more than 30 years in Midland-Odessa, Texas and Northwest Arkansas before retiring. He was a U.S. Army veteran. McAlister was preceded in death by his wife Shirley Ellen McKee McAlister and a son, Michael. Survivors include four sons: Jodie and Kerry, both of Fayetteville, Ark.; Shane of Springdale, Ark.; and Kyle of Mountain Home, Ark.; a daughter, Ellen Browning of Chelmsford, Mass.; a brother, and nine grandchildren.

Paul W. Schanher, Jr., T’35, MD’39, HS’39-’42, died Feb. 28, 2007 at Oakwood Village’s Glaesner Center in Springfield, Ohio. He was 93. Schanher was a general and thoracic surgeon serving both the Springfield Community and Mercy hospitals. At the outbreak of World War II he joined the Duke unit of the 65th General Hospital as it prepared for overseas duty. While stationed in Diss, England, his unit served the Eighth Air Force and the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy in June 1944. With the war coming to a close he married Marcella Paynter of Montgomery, W.Va. on Aug. 1, 1945, in Nocten Hall, England. The couple returned to Durham, N.C., so Schanher could complete his surgical residency at Duke. The couple moved to Springfield, Ohio, in the fall of 1948, where he began his surgical practice. Schanher was a member of the American Medical Association, the Clark County Medical Association—serving as president early in his career—and a member of the Ohio chapter of the Board of Certified General Surgeons. He also was appointed chief of staff of the surgical departments of both Springfield Community and Mercy hospitals. The annual medical society golf outing is named in his honor. He was also formerly active in the local American Red Cross; team physician for Northeastern High School in the mid-1950s and Shawnee High School from its inception until the early 1970s; was plant physician for Cooper Industries for many years before his retirement in 1985; and contributed to numerous other charitable organizations. He was preceded in death by his wife in 1998. He is survived by two sons, Paul W. III “Ski” and his wife Cheryl of Springfield and Thomas Frank of Cincinnati; and daughter Adele Virginia “Ginny” Wright and husband Cliff of St. Augustine, Fla.; six grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and two step-great-grandchildren.

Roland E. Schmidt, MD, HS’45-’46, of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Hill City, S.D., died February 20, 2007 at UNC Hospitals. He was 88. He was born in Bemidji, Minnesota, and lived with and among many immediate and extended family members who owned and operated the J. Neils Lumber Company. He enjoyed his years growing up with aunts, uncles, cousins, and siblings. He married Ellen Troy Parker at Palmer Gulch Lodge in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1950. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1939 with a degree in English. He served as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WWII. In 1945 he graduated from the University of Chicago medical school and completed an internship in pediatrics at Duke University. He and his wife moved to New Orleans and then to San Francisco, where he was a general practitioner and began a family. He and his family returned to North Carolina in 1959, where he completed a residency in pediatrics and a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at UNC. After this residency he was an associate professor of medicine from 1964-73 at the West Virginia University Medical School in Morgantown, W.Va. and from 1973-80 at the University of Oregon Medical School and Hospital in Eugene, Ore. He served on the American Board of Pediatrics and the Board of Pediatric Cardiologists. Upon retirement in 1980 he and his wife returned to Chapel Hill, where he was a member of Playmakers Theatre and an avid fan of Tar Heel basketball. He was preceded in death by his wife. He is survived by son and daughter-in-law Troy and Alison Schmidt of Wooster, Ohio; daughter and son-in-law Anna and Michael Lowden of Eugene, Ore.; and several grandchildren.

Charles F. Seymour, MD’50, HS’50-’52, a long-time pediatrician in the Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., area, died Jan. 17, 2007. He was 88. Seymour earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in 1940 and was drafted into the U.S. Army and served Camp Davis Hospital in North Carolina, where he met his future wife Frances Baker. They were married in 1943. The Army relocated him to Lawson Hospital in Thomasville, Ga., where he was head of bacteriology. He reached the rank of first lieutenant and was honorably discharged in 1946 when he entered Duke School of Medicine, earning his medical degree in 1950. After internship and residency in pediatrics at Duke Hospital he relocated in 1952 with his family to Ft. Lauderdale and began his practice. In 1960 he became partners with William R. Smouse, MD. Seymour and Smouse were partners for more than 40 years. They served on the staff of Broward General Medical Center and acted as consultants to the Chris Evert Women and Children’s Center. His wife died in 1993. In 2000 Seymour and Smouse received the Key to the City and had February 22 named Seymour and Smouse Day in Ft. Lauderdale. Seymour is survived by his four children: Mark, Frances, Patrick, and Jaye, their spouses, and five grandchildren.

Robert G. Sumner, MD, HS’59-’63, DC, died at his home in Concord, N.C. on March 13, 2007. He was 72. Sumner graduated from Harvard University and received his medical degree from Cornell Medical School in New York City. He completed his residency in internal medicine and a cardiology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. After serving as a doctor in the U.S. Navy for two years he moved to Concord in 1965 and joined in practice with Ladd Hamrick, MD, HS’50-’51, and Robert McWhorter, MD’47. The practice grew into H&M Medical Clinic, and later became Copperfield Internal Medicine. Sumner started Cabarrus County’s first echocardiography laboratory. He retired in 2003. Survivors include his wife of 48 years, Alice Earle Sumner; his children, Elizabeth Jokerst, T’82, MD’86, DC; Beverly Darwin, T’83, MD’87, HS’90-’91; Robert Jr., and William, T’91, MD’96, HS’00, DC, and respective spouses; and several grandchildren.

William C. Stone, MD’42, died January 22 in Roanoke, Va., at the age of 91. He earned his medical degree from Duke in 1942 and then served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He specialized in ophthalmology at the Eye Institute at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City and practiced in Roanoke from 1950-83. He served as the president of the Roanoke Academy of Medicine. In 1966 and 1968 he served four months as a volunteer physician in Viet Nam. He was active in many community organizations and a devoted member of Greene Memorial Church. Stone is survived by Lorna, his wife of 61 years; daughters Lorna and Marcia of Seattle; son Jeff and his wife Julie of Poway, Calif.; and three grandchildren.

Thomas W. Twele, MD’67, DC, of Anniston, Ala., died March 20, 2007. He was 64. Twele is survived by his wife, Aylmarie Uhlhorn Twele; children Frank Ahlgren III and Elise Ahlgren Leake, a son-in-law; and several grandchildren. He attended undergraduate school at Columbia University in New York City and received his medical degree from Duke. He served residencies at the State University of New York in Syracuse and the University of Texas Medical Center in San Antonio. Twele completed a fellowship in hematology-oncology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. He received certification from the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Internal Medicine Subspecialty Medical Oncology and Hematology. He also had research affiliations with the Southwest Oncology Group and the Sarah Cannon Cancer Center. Early in his career, with Dr. M. T. Shaw, he published Plasma Cell Leukemia; Detailed Studies and Response to Therapy in the periodical Cancer. Twele served in the U. S. Army Hospital at Kirk Army Hospital, Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland, and from 1970-71 in Vietnam in a mobile medical unit. Prior to establishing his practice in Anniston, he practiced in Utica, N.Y., and El Paso, Texas. Twele was a founder and member of the board of directors of Hospice in Anniston. When it opened in 1987, he became medical director and remained in that position until very recently. Online condolences may be made to the family at: www.klbrownmemorychapel.com

Preston A. Walker, MD, HS’63-’65, died Dec. 8, 2006 in Raleigh. He was 76. Walker was a 1955 graduate of the University of South Carolina and earned his medical degree at the Medical College of South Carolina. He completed his residency in psychiatry at Dorothea Dix Hospital and his fellowship in child psychiatry at Duke. He retired in 1990 from both the University of North Carolina as the director of residency training and Dorothea Dix, where he was the director of medical education. Walker was instrumental in the creation of the Foundation of Hope for Research and Treatment of Mental Illness and served as chairman from its creation in 1984 until 1995. To date the foundation has distributed more than $2 million in research grants. He is survived by his wife Jane, daughter Kathryn and her husband, son Preston Jr., and his wife, two grandsons, and his treasured dog Pretzel.