Stead, Eugene A., Papers, 1929-1999

Collection Number: MC.0024
Eugene A. Stead Papers, 1929-1999

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Materials in Series 12 must be screened for sensitive or confidential information before they can be accessed.

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Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Eugene A. Stead Papers, Duke University Medical Center Archives.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Collections may contain Medical Center Administrative records. These include records of the officers of the University, as defined in the Bylaws, the deans of schools and colleges, and departments, institutes, and other offices as designated by the President. For a period of twenty-five years from the origin of the material, permission in writing from the director of the office of record and the Medical Center Archivist is required for use. After twenty-five years, records that have been processed may be consulted with the permission of the Medical Center Archivist.

Collection may contain Records of the Board of Trustees of the Duke University Medical Center. These include minutes and supporting documentation of the Board, its Executive Committee, and standing and ad hoc committees, and reports, studies, and the like presented solely to the Board. Records which have been existence for at least fifty years are available for scholarly research with the permission of the Medical Center Archivist. Access to records which have been in existence for less than fifty years shall be granted only by special permission, in writing, of the Medical Center Board of Trustees.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings and Medical Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collectionsuch as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the Archives' Digital Repository.

• Duke University--Faculty.
• Duke University. Dept. of Medicine.
• Duke University. Medical Center.
• Duke University. Physician Assistant Program.
• Duke University. School of Medicine.
• Haynes, Barton F.
• Laszlo, John, 1931-
• Education, Medical
• Ethics, Medical
• Physician Assistants -- education -- North Carolina

Eugene Anson Stead, Jr. was born in Georgia in 1908. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Emory University (B.S., 1928; M.D., 1932) and interned at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (1934-1937). He was a resident at the Cincinnati General Hospital (1935-1936) and held a faculty position at Harvard University (1938-1941) and the Boston City Hospital prior to becoming the youngest person to chair the Department of Medicine at Emory University (1942). He was named dean of the School of Medicine at Emory University in 1946, but left one year later to become professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine (1947-1967) at Duke University.

Stead was widely known for having established the physician assistant training program at Duke University in 1965. In the 1950s, Duke Hospital faced an increased demand for services and a shortage of all types of nursing and allied health personnel. Stead, then chair of the Department of Medicine, envisioned a physician's assistant as a way to provide clinical support to physicians and to allow them to leave their practices to pursue continuing education opportunities. His experience running Emory's Grady Hospital during World War II had convinced him that residents and medical students could be trained to help doctors in patient care. Stead recruited the first students to begin the program at Duke University. The two-year program supplied physicians with knowledgeable personnel who could help meet the growing demand for their services.

As a local and national leader, Stead held many distinguished posts, including president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, founding member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, chairman of the American Heart Association's Ethics Committee, honorary fellow of the American College of Cardiology, and editor of Medical Times, Circulation, and the North Carolina Medical Journal. Some of Stead's published works included Just Say for Me (1968), The Future of Medical Education (1973), The Greater Medical Profession (1972), E. A. Stead, Jr.: What This Patient Needs is a Doctor (1978), Brain Sorting (1983), A Way of Thinking: A Primer on the Art of Being a Doctor (1995), and A Way of Working: Essays on the Practice of Medicine (2001).

Among numerous honors, Stead received the John M. Russell Award of the Markle Foundation, the American College of Physicians Distinguished Teacher Award, the Association of American Medical Colleges' Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education, the Gold Heart Award from the American Heart Association, the Kober Medal from the Association of American Physicians, and the Rodman E. and Thomas G. Sheen Award. Stead also received the Medical Alumni Association's Distinguished Teacher Award, which is now known as the Distinguished Faculty Award. Emory and Yale University have conferred honorary degrees upon him. In 2003, Stead received the William G. Anlyan, M.D. Lifetime Achievement Award from Duke Medical Alumni Association.

Stead continued to teach and practice at Duke University Medical Center and Durham's Veterans Affairs Medical Center through the mid-1980s. Dr. Stead died in 2005.

Contains the professional papers of Eugene Anson Stead, former professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. Types of materials include correspondence, subject files, grant materials, writings, speeches, manuscript materials, certificates, awards, photographs, clippings, and audiotapes. Also includes manuscript materials created by John Laszlo based on interviews with Stead and photographs created and used by Barton F. Haynes as editor of Stead's memoirs, A Way of Thinking: A Primer on the Art of Being a Doctor. Major subjects include the Duke University School of Medicine, the Department of Medicine, study and teaching of medicine, medical ethics, medical education, and education of physician assistants.

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