Edward W. Hook, Jr., M.D.
(1924-1998)
Founder of the Program of Humanities in Medicine
at the University of Virginia
Edward Watson Hook, M.D., was professor of medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine for three decades. He changed the way medicine was organized and taught and practiced at the University, and was also an influence on the national scene in medicine.
Born 10 August 1924 in Sumter County, South Carolina, Edward Watson Hook, Jr. earned a B.S. degree from Wofford College. When World War II interrupted his education, he joined the army and completed the premedical curriculum at Yale University. He served briefly in the war, then in 1944 entered Emory University School of Medicine. He graduated in 1949, having completed both his medical studies (with election to Alpha Omega Alpha) and a fellowship in bacteriology. He interned in medicine at the University of Minnesota; then, during the Korean War, directed the Third Army Area Microbiology Laboratories. He completed his medical residency at Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital, where he also served as chief medical resident and undertook a fellowship in infectious diseases.
In 1956, Dr. Hook joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1959, he was recruited to Cornell University Medical College to lead the infectious diseases division in the department of internal medicine, where he rose quickly to the rank of professor and served also as vice chair of the department. In 1964, he established a joint program in tropical medicine between Cornell and the University of Bahia in Brazil. Dr. Hook published widely and was an authority on salmonella and influenza infections and the antimicrobial therapy of typhoid fever, pulmonary infections and infective endocarditis. He was active in the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Clinical and Climatological Association, eventually serving as president of each body, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Federation for Clinical Research, American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the New York Academy of Sciences, among other professional organizations. He held numerous editorial appointments.
In 1969, Dr. Hook was named the Henry B. Mulholland Professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Virginia. In 21 years as department head (1969-1990), he built a nationally acclaimed department, recruiting scores of outstanding physicians to lead and staff the department's subspecialty divisions. He championed research, brought the medical residency program into national prominence, founded the primary care internal medicine residency program, helped establish the family medicine residency program and department, and helped create a geographic medicine program that pairs the UVA with the Brazil's Federal University of Ceara.
Dr. Hook's passionate and longstanding interest in the human dimensions of medical care led him to found the medical school's Program of Humanities in Medicine in 1990. He directed this program until 1996 and remained active in it until his death, teaching, researching and writing about the history of medicine at UVA, and mentoring students and faculty alike. From 1991 to 1996, he also directed the medical school's weekly Medical Center Hour conferences.
While chair of internal medicine, Dr. Hook participated in national colloquia on the ethics of care for dying persons, introduced formal programs in biomedical ethics into the medical school, helped found the medical school's Center for Biomedical Ethics, and chaired the UVA Medical Center's ethics committee for its first ten years. He also worked for racial and gender equity in the medical school through the Medical Academic Advancement Program, which honors him annually with a lecture in his name, and as chair of the Medical Student Advocacy Committee.
Committed to creating a hospitable and healing environment for patients, visitors, and staff, Dr. Hook headed the Medical Center's arts committee, which established University Hospital's permanent art collection and initiated in-hospital programs of visual and performing arts. He was a patron of contemporary art and an avid collector of nineteenth-century American prints.
A longtime Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Master of the College since 1986, Dr. Hook was ACP Governor for Virginia, a regent of the College, the College's national president in 1985-1986, and member of numerous ACP committees. He chaired the American Board of Internal Medicine's committees on evaluation of clinical competence and assessment of humanistic qualities in the internist. He chaired the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program's advisory board, and at the time of his death was active in the foundation's Minority Faculty Development Program.
Dr. Hook was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He served on the U.S. delegation to the United States-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program. An honorary Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, he also held honorary degrees from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and the University of Bahia. Emory University honored him with its first Distinguished Medical Achievement Award. UVA established in his name an endowed professorship in internal medicine, and, for his abundant accomplishments and contributions, the University in 1996 awarded him its most prestigious award, the Thomas Jefferson Award.
Dr. Hook died unexpectedly on Monday, 5 October 1998, at age 74. His ashes were interred in Columbia, South Carolina, following a private family service.