Eugene Stead, Jr., M.D.

Dr. Eugene Stead died on June 12, 2005. I did not know Dr. Stead personally but I knew of him as did almosr everyone of my generation in medicine. He started at Emory University but moved to Duke where he was chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine. He was an extraordinally gifted teacher who inspired students to learn and he had a national reputation as an educator. As evidence of his abilitiy, thirty-three of his trainees went on to become chairmen of the departments of medicine at their repective universities. There is no one I know of that equals the influence of Dr. Stead upon the development of academic medicine.

He is credited with a saying I have admired and it goes something like this - "I can teach medical students without the involvement of resident physicians but I cannot teach resident physicians without the involvement of medical students."

I did not know Dr. Stead personally but I knew of him and his work. His contributions are known and appreciated. He made a difference.