PAUL R. MCCURDY ’46

PAUL R. MCCURDY, an expert in the fields of stem cell transplantation and blood safety, who served as director of the blood resources program at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, died Sept. 7, 2010. He was 84. The son of the late emeritus professor of physical education Hugh G. McCurdy and a member of Psi Upsilon, he received his degree with high honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa before receiving his medical degree from Harvard University. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and again during the Korean War. During his long career as a hematologist, he was a professor at Georgetown University Medical School, director of blood services for the Washington region of the American Red Cross, and an associate at the National Institutes of Health, where he received a Distinguished Service Award for his work on a national registry of individuals willing to donate bone marrow. He also studied the feasibility of banking umbilical cord blood as a source of blood stem cells. His first marriage, to Marion Fountain McCurdy, ended in divorce. Survivors include his wife, Kay Kane McCurdy, five children from his first marriage, three stepchildren, 13 grandchildren, and his sister.