Dear Members of the Geisel Community,
It is with deep sadness that I share the news that James C. Strickler, MD (D ’50 DMS ’51), dean emeritus and active emeritus professor of Medicine and of Community and Family Medicine, passed away peacefully on June 27. He was 99. He served as dean of Dartmouth Medical School from 1973 – 1981.
Dr. Strickler's connection to our school spanned more than seven decades. A graduate of Dartmouth and Dartmouth Medical School, he returned to Hanover in 1967 to help guide the school's transition to a full four-year MD-granting curriculum and went on to lead it as dean for eight years. He is remembered for steadying the school during a financially precarious period, including establishing the Brown-Dartmouth Program, through which students attended medical school at Dartmouth for the preclinical years and transferred to Brown to complete their training.
What distinguished Dr. Strickler, perhaps above all, was how he chose to spend the years that followed his deanship. Rather than step back, he devoted himself to humanitarian medicine, caring for refugees and conflict-affected communities across Asia, Africa, the Balkans, and beyond through the International Rescue Committee. He later led Dartmouth's longstanding work in Kosovo and co-founded Action for Mothers and Children, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of mothers and children in Kosovo, which carries on its work today. Those who knew him recall a physician and leader of rare humility, quick to share credit, and quietly steadfast in his commitment to others.
A memorial service will be held at a later date, and we will share those details with the community as they become available. For now, I hope you will join me in holding Dr. Strickler's family in our thoughts and in remembering a life of remarkable service and care.
Sincerely,
Steven D. Leach, MD
Interim Dean
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth