Tag: 1923

OSCEOLA CURRIER McEWEN, M.D., former dean of New York University School of Medicine, world-renowned rheumatologist, and international award-winning hybridizer of Siberian and Japanese irises, died June 23, 2003 at age 101. A member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, he received his degree with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine; he also received honorary degrees from Wesleyan and from Marietta (Ohio) College. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army, establishing hospitals for wounded Allied soldiers and serving as chief consultant in medicine for the European Theater of Operations. Initially a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute, he joined the faculty at the New York University School of Medicine in 1932 and served in both clinical and administrative posts. During this time he established the Rheumatic Disease Study Group at the school, a pioneering interdisciplinary research effort that helped to usher in the era of modern rheumatology. He not only served as dean of the medical school, but also as director of NYU’s University Hospital and of Bellevue Hospital. After his retirement as professor of medicine in 1970, he continued to see patients pro bono in various parts of Maine. During one of his trips to northern Maine, his wife, Kay Cogswell McEwen, was killed in a tragic automobile accident. In Maine he did most of his hybridizing and maintained his flower gardens, developing registered new varieties. Until his late nineties, he continued to make cross-hybridizations in his garden, as well as to write books and journal articles, both about medicine and about Japanese and Siberian irises. Among those who survive are his wife, Elisabeth Fulkerson McEwen, three daughters, a son, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren

OSCEOLA CURRIER McEWEN, M.D., former dean of New York University School of Medicine, world-renowned rheumatologist, and international award-winning hybridizer of Siberian and Japanese irises, died June 23, 2003 at age 101. A member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, he received his degree with honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received a medical degree from New York University School of Medicine; he also received honorary degrees from Wesleyan and from Marietta (Ohio) College. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army, establishing hospitals for wounded Allied soldiers and serving as chief consultant in medicine for the European Theater of Operations. Initially a researcher at the Rockefeller Institute, he joined the faculty at the New York University School of Medicine in 1932 and served in both clinical and administrative posts. During this time he established the Rheumatic Disease Study Group at the school, a pioneering interdisciplinary research effort that helped to usher in the era of modern rheumatology. He not only served as dean of the medical school, but also as director of NYU’s University Hospital and of Bellevue Hospital. After his retirement as professor of medicine in 1970, he continued to see patients pro bono in various parts of Maine. During one of his trips to northern Maine, his wife, Kay Cogswell McEwen, was killed in a tragic automobile accident. In Maine he did most of his hybridizing and maintained his flower gardens, developing registered new varieties. Until his late nineties, he continued to make cross-hybridizations in his garden, as well as to write books and journal articles, both about medicine and about Japanese and Siberian irises. Among those who survive are his wife, Elisabeth Fulkerson McEwen, three daughters, a son, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.