Honoring Medical Alumni

Duke's Medical Alumni Association honored seven alumni and faculty in October during Medical Alumni Weekend, which was attended by more than 500 medical alumni and friends. Men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski added another accolade to his rèsumè by being named an honorary medical alumnus.

Distinguished Alumnus(a) Awards were presented to John T. Dees M.D. '52, Earl N. Metz M.D. '61, and Judith L. Swain (House Staff '76, '80). A. Everette James M.D. '63 received the Humanitarian Award.

Faculty members Debra A. Schwinn A.H.C. '86, H.S. '89 and James R. Urbaniak M.D. '62, H.S. '69 received Distinguished Faculty awards. Schwinn, a professor of anesthesiology, pharmacology/cancer biology, and surgery, and vice chair of research in the anesthesiology department, directs the Molecular Pharmacology Laboratories and Perioperative Genomics. Her research focuses on understanding how stress and genetic differences between people relate to disease outcomes.

Urbaniak recently stepped down after seventeen years as chief of orthopedics. He is vice chair of the department of surgery and the Virginia Flowers Baker Professor of orthopedic surgery. He is credited with having developed and refined many of the techniques and principles practiced widely by orthopedic surgeons today.

Dees has been a family practitioner and community activist in Burgaw, North Carolina, for thirty-nine years. He is a past president of the North Carolina Medical Society and a recipient of the North Carolina Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

Metz is a professor emeritus of hematology and oncology at Ohio State University. He is widely published in medical and medical-education journals and has received numerous awards for teaching and patient care. In 1997, OSU established the Earl N. Metz, M.D., Award, given annually to the most outstanding physician in the school's department of medicine.

Swain is the Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor and chair of the department of medicine at Stanford University. She is widely known for advances in the field of molecular cardiology, including pioneering the use of transgenic animals to understand the genetic basis of cardiovascular development and disease. She was a resident at Duke from 1974 to 1980 and a member of the faculty from 1979 to 1991.

A. Everette James, a radiologist, was given the humanitarian award for his efforts to promote the arts as a feature of the healing process. He has donated artwork to academic institutions throughout the country, including Duke. He created a Southern folklore museum and made many other contributions to his native Robersonville, North Carolina, community.

Krzyzewski received the honorary alumnus award for his longstanding service to Duke Children's Hospital and Health Center. He is honorary chair and on-air host for the Duke Children's Miracle Network and the MIX 101.5 Duke Children's Radiothon. He and his wife, Mickie, were members of the Duke Children's National Board of Advisers during fund raising for the McGovern-Davison Children's Health Center, completed in 2001.

Other events during the weekend included the Dean's Hour with special guest Yank Coble Jr. '59, M.D. '62, president of the American Medical Association.