Oglesby Paul, MD

Dr Oglesby Paul died on December 22, 2007, of a heart attack in Fox Hill Village retirement home in Westwood, Massachusetts. He was 91 years of age.

Dr Paul was born in Villanova, Pennsylvania, and moved to Milton, Massachusetts, with his family in the early 1920s. A member of Milton Academy's class of 1934, he then attended Harvard College and Harvard Medical School from which he graduated in 1942. In 1943 he wed Marguerite Black to whom he remained married until her death in 1979.

After his medical school graduation, Oley (as he was affectionately known) enlisted in the Navy and served as ship's doctor on the USS Daly for 4 years. Upon his return from naval assignments, he completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. While there, he made the acquaintance of Dr Paul Dudley White who became a valued mentor for many years to come. Dr Paul published “Take Heart,” a biography of Dr White in 1986. Dr Paul assisted Dr White with the annual course in cardiology, attended by physicians from all over the world. Among the many valuable lessons imparted to Dr Paul by Dr White, a master clinician, were the importance of physical examination and history taking. He later credited these as having served him well throughout his career as a cardiology consultant, and was able to happily pass these on to physicians under his own mentorship.

Dr Paul had a promising career as a Boston cardiologist, but he moved to Chicago where his career continued as an amalgam of private practice, teaching, and academic service. The Central Free Dispensary of Presbyterian Hospital (later known as Presbyterian-St. Luke's Hospital) in Chicago was the main venue for his practice and teaching. He continued to develop as a leader in clinical cardiology and attracted patients from all over the world because of his reputation as a master clinician and a generous caregiver.

Mitral valvuloplasty and open-heart surgery were pioneered at Presbyterian Hospital during Dr Paul's tenure. He maintained a presence in the operating rooms to ensure cardiologic stability of his patients who underwent these surgeries by Dr Egbert Fell.

In the early 1960s, Dr Paul moved to Passavant Hospital and Northwestern Medical School, serving as Chief of Medicine, Professor of Medicine, and Vice President for Health Sciences. He made a tremendous impact throughout these institutions and was recognized regionally and nationally for his clinical and teaching excellence. He was regarded as fair-minded, thoughtful, and was especially solicitous of younger physicians and mentored them comprehensively.

As a researcher, his interest in diet, exercise, and smoking was spurred during earlier days with Dr Paul Dudley White. Later in his career, this interest flourished into a broader examination of the impact of many components of lifestyle on cardiologic health. For more than 20 years, he compiled and analyzed data from a study of more than 2000 middle-aged men in the Western Electric Plant in Cicero, Illinois. Dr Paul also studied the natural history of hypertension and led a medical risk factors trial as well, studying the role of risk factor modifications in heart disease.

Dr Paul modeled the lifestyle he advocated. His son, Rod, recalls that he insisted on using the stairs rather than the elevators at Passavant Hospital, leading a trail of struggling residents behind him.

Among the many honors he received during his career were the Presidency of the American Heart Association and the Chairmanship of the Subspecialty Board of Cardiology (the first subspecialty board organized by the American Board of Internal Medicine). However, no matter what he did, patients always held the center of his attention and, according to his son; he always gave patients and their families a great deal of time.

In 1977, Dr Daniel C. Tosteson, the Dean of the Harvard Medical School, invited Oley to be the Director of Admissions. Many believe this to be the most important committee at HMS. According to Drs Daniel Federman, Ronald Arky, Eugene Braunwald, and Joseph V. Messer, who wrote a memorial minute in the April 15–28, 2010, issue of the Harvard Gazette, Dr Paul brought his usual high standards to this committee.

Dr Paul's years as Chair of the Committee on Admissions were marked by some controversy. He recommended discontinuing a very successful subcommittee on minority admissions, believing that the entire medical school and admission process very sufficiently addressed the goal of diversity. He believed that a separate subcommittee, which brought “…intense specialized judgment to the evaluation of minority students with non-traditional backgrounds…” was not necessary. Dr Paul's proposal was not adopted, but more than 20 years later a similar version was adopted and was believed to be more consistent with the standards which evolved from judgments of the US Supreme Court, ultimately proving Dr Paul's views to be right. (Personal Communication, Daniel Federman, March 2012)

After the death of his first wife in 1979, he married Jean Lithgow Paul in 1981. (Her last name was the same as his!) In the final phase of his professional career, Oley was a professor emeritus at Harvard and spent a great deal of time at the Brigham and Women's Hospital as a clinical teacher. There he passed along to medical students, residents, and cardiology fellows the lessons gleaned throughout his career on the importance of obtaining a complete medical history and performing a full physical examination. His younger colleagues marveled at his skills, especially as he demonstrated the wonderful relationships he established, over a brief period of time, with patients whom he met while on teaching rounds.

Oley became a member of The Climatological in 1971 and enjoyed the camaraderie, social aspects, and intellectual stimulation of our organization.

Oley's other interests included travel and photography, and he loved the Boston Symphony and the Museum of Fine Arts. He is survived by his children Marnie and Rodman, stepchildren, grandchildren, and step-grandchildren.

Oglesby Paul was a stellar clinician, teacher, researcher, and administrator whose work centered on his patients and their families, and his younger colleagues. His legacy survives in the form of physicians of all ages who, over many decades, learned from his words and his example.