Harry W Fritts Jr., MD, the first Chair of the Department of Medicine at The Stony Brook University School of Medicine, died on April 22, 2011, at the age of 89. Dr. Fritts was elected to the ACCA in 1966.
Harry Fritts was born in Rockwood, Tennessee, and attended Vanderbilt University, later transferring to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a BS in electrical engineering. From 1942 to 1946, he served in the US Navy, achieving the position of Commanding Officer, USS LST 461. He participated in the Asiatic-Pacific Theater (Four Stars) and in the Philippine Liberation (Two Stars). He was involved in the invasions of Saipan, Tinian, Leyte Gulf, Nasugbu Bay, Lingayen Gulf, Okinawa, and he fought in the Second Battle of the Philippine Sea. He was honorably discharged at the age of 25.
Despite his background and expertise in engineering, Harry Fritts had long dreamed of being a doctor. He graduated from Boston University School of Medicine in 1951 (and received the Distinguished Alumnus award in 1974). After house staff training in Boston, he worked at the prestigious Pulmonary Function Laboratory at Bellevue Hospital in New York with Drs. Andre Cournand and Dickinson Richards. Drs. Cournand and Richards were both members of the ACCA and recipients of the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1956. Dr. Fritts wrote about 30 scientific papers between 1958 and 1973 and he succeeded Dr. Cournand as the laboratory director specializing in cardiopulmonary physiology. In 1990, Dr. Fritts wrote Dr. Cournand's Memorial in the Transactions of the ACCA.
When the Bellevue laboratory closed in 1968, the group moved to the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and Harry Fritts was named the Dickinson W. Richards Professor of Medicine. In 1973, he was recruited by the State University at Stony Brook, New York, to be the Founding Chair of the Department of Medicine of the new medical school. The inaugural first two classes held a total of 48 students. Dr. Fritts was committed to teaching excellence in clinical medicine in the setting of a research university. He held the Edmund D. Pellegrino Chair of Medicine at Stony Brook University and served as Chair of Medicine until 1987 when he became Chair Emeritus.
He was active in the ACCA delivering three talks between 1973 and 1979. The three titles reflect his broad interest in medicine and the academic world. He spoke about canine models of granulomatous lung disease in 1973, on the nature of the diaphragm in 1976, and in 1979 he asked “Are we Socratic teachers?” In the last paper, he describes a teaching session between Socrates and his student and then ends the paper quoting Cicero in Latin.
Ten years after he retired as Department Chair at Stony Brook, the Johns Hopkins University Press published Dr. Fritts' book, On Leading a Clinical Department. Although the book is described on the back cover as a practical and concise how-to guide for physicians, it is much more. The book leans on literature, philosophy, and history to tell the deep and personal story of the Harry Fritts' philosophy of medical education.
As third year students at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, I and my classmates were in awe of Dr. Fritts. Another former student of Dr. Fritts, Dr. Naomi Nakao, Stony Brook School of Medicine '76, was profiled as an Alumni Success Story in the Stony Brook University News in January 2013. She quotes Dr. Fritts' advice to students: “Medicine is a vocation to be cherished: practice it with all your heart and mind. Honor this precious gift that was bestowed upon you by caring for your patients with the deepest respect and love.”
Harry Fritts was a great doctor, a renowned clinical investigator and a legendary teacher. He was a valued member of the ACCA.
Anne Moore, MD
