RICHARD S. McCRAY ’54

RICHARD S. McCRAY, M.D., a pioneer in gastrointestinal endoscopy, died Feb. 24, 2017, at age 84. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon and received a master’s degree in divinity from Yale University. After several years in the ministry, he entered Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, from which he received his medical degree in 1962. As a gastroenterology fellow in Boston, he demonstrated the first fiberoptic endoscope there and in 1968 introduced endoscopy to New York City. Later, a clinical professor of medicine at Columbia, he was the founding president of the New York Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and trained more than 100 physicians in the procedures. In 2005 he was given the Distinguished Educator Award by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He retired in 2010. Survivors include his wife, Carol Ann McCray, three children from a previous marriage, and three grandchildren.