Roger W. Haskell ’50
Dr. Roger W. Haskell died on Dec. 28, 2017. He was 88. Roger was born in Hempstead, N.Y., on March 11, 1929, the third child to Merritt S. and Kathleen (Rayner) Haskell. He attended the Hempstead school system, graduating in 1946. From there he went on to Wesleyan University, graduating in 1950 with a bachelor’s degree in bio-chemistry. He entered the medical school at the University of Liege in Belgium in 1952 for a six-year program of intensive medical studies given in the French language. Only an intense dedication to his dream of obtaining that degree in medicine saw him through the rigorous days of study for which he also had to learn French.
Upon graduation with honors, Roger returned home to serve his internship at Mercy Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. He honored his military draft obligation by joining the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) and was assigned to the Indian Health Service (IHS). He was posted as the sole on-site physician at the clinic of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in central Oregon. There, with only a one year of internship experience as a licensed physician (as was typical in that era for incoming IHS) doctors), Roger served a population of 2,000 Native Americans from 1959-1961. In his autobiography, written over 50 years later, Roger vividly described this time as an intense personal and professional experience.
He went on to complete a USPHS general practice residency in Galveston, Texas, in 1963. Roger was then posted as service unit director to the Tuba City Clinic on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. In this combined clinical and administrative position, Roger demonstrated remarkable skill in health care planning. He saw the critical need for data on which to base assessment and improvement and became the prime mover for development of a large computerized health data system, which was ultimately implemented nationally throughout the entire Indian Health Service. For this achievement, he was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal of the USPHS by C. Everett Koop, U.S. surgeon general. While serving on the Navajo reservation, Roger also completed his master’s in public health at the University of California Berkeley in 1966, deepening his expertise in health care planning.
In 1969, Roger was appointed deputy area director of the IHS Portland area office, responsible for the health care services of tribes throughout Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. There he became an early adopter of problem-oriented medical records in that three-state service area. Along with a pediatrician colleague, Dr. Jean Gorman, Roger developed an innovative set of well-child clinic forms and preventive health care records, which both implemented a standard of best practice and allowed for data collection for subsequent rounds of improvement. Problem-oriented records and the use of standardized preventive medicine forms were early and extremely valuable innovations, which heralded a revolution, still ongoing 50 years later, in the deployment of electronic health records. We now recognize data management and information processing as among the fundamental challenges of our society. Roger was among the innovators in applying these ideas to medical care.
The preventive health care templates developed by Roger and Dr. Gorman proved so valuable in what came to be called primary care practice, that they were eagerly adopted by young IHS physicians who, after two or three years in the IHS, returned to primary care residencies and then to clinical practice. Thus, these useful forms were disseminated to other health care settings, including the Department of Public Health Primary Care clinics in San Francisco, which later became the citywide universal health care program known as “Healthy San Francisco.”
In his final eight years with the USPHS, Roger served as director of ambulatory care at the USPHS Marine Hospital in Seattle, and subsequently at the USPHS outpatient clinic in Portland. Roger was justifiably proud of these accomplishments and considered his Indian Health Service years the most productive and creative of his work as a physician.
Music of all kinds was most important to him, from his high school days through college and medical school. He played trumpet, and while in medical school, he often sat in with a jazz group that played in a lounge in Liege. He also had a love of classical music, attending recitals and concerts as often as possible. Throughout his travels, his trumpet accompanied him.
While living in Europe, Roger married his first wife, Muguette, who predeceased him. His second marriage to Edna Alfonso, lasted through Roger’s last days; they made their home in Greer, SC.
Roger completed his autobiography, A Rewarding Life, shortly before he died. It is a surprisingly complete account of his life, from his earliest years to the present, showing an amazing memory for events and people, and a wonderful glimpse into his innermost thoughts and feelings. He shared his love and care for his nuclear family—mother, father, and siblings, Merle and Stratton. His career with the Public Health Service is thoroughly recounted, many details of past experiences beautifully told. He had the book printed, published, and distributed to many friends, family, and professional acquaintances. A Rewarding Lifeis perfectly named—his life was just that. Those who have read his story have to be grateful for its timing.
Roger leaves his wife, Edna, his brother, Stratton (Virginia) Haskell, nephews, Robert (Kathy) Miller and Warren (Lynn) Haskell, and nieces, Priscilla (Jim) lvler and Holly (Kenton) Youngstrom, along with many grand-nieces and nephews and great-grand nieces and nephews. A memorial service was held in San Francisco and in Greer, S.C.
We thank the family of Dr. Haskell for this information.