James C. Strickler, MD (D’50 DMS’51), dean emeritus and active emeritus professor of medicine and of community and family medicine at Geisel School of Medicine, died on June 27 at age 99.
Modest and unassuming, yet with a sharp sense of humor that put everyone at ease, Strickler was a prominent figure in the history of the medical school. Recruited from New York Hospital Cornell by then-dean Carleton Chapman, he returned to Dartmouth in 1967, as associate dean for academic affairs to help build the school’s academic and clinical departments, develop a new curriculum for medical students, and to design and plan an academic medical school. At that time, Dartmouth’s medical school offered a 2-year basic medical science curriculum but the rising national interest in regionalizing medical care to create more efficient systems of care led Chapman’s decision to transition to a full MD degree.
Strickler, one of the chief architects of the new curriculum, brought the rigor and compassion of a physician and the strategic clarity of an institutional leader to design the future of the medical school. His lifelong commitment to inclusivity shaped both the academic enterprise and the administration—he believed that institutions were only as strong as the range of voices shaping them.
During his tenure at Dartmouth, including eight years as dean from 1973 – 1981, with aspirations of creating a preeminent nationally and internationally recognized medical school Strickle implemented the new full MD degree, introduced a clinical curriculum, strengthened existing academic programs, and created the Brown-Dartmouth partnership where 20 students in each class completed their pre-clinical training at Dartmouth and their clinical training at Brown.
He established the medical school’s Board of Overseers (now the Board of Advisors), hired the first fulltime admissions officer, created the alumni relations office, expanded the development office, helped diversify the school by increasing the enrollment of women and under-represented students, and guided the medical school to financial stability during years of expansion.
Strickler also oversaw the evolution of clinical departments at Mary Hitchcock Hospital Hitchcock Clinic, and the Veterans Hospital in White River Junction, VT, and worked with both Dartmouth and the hospitals, to further build the medical school. Strickler was instrumental in founding the Department of Community and Family Medicine and recruited luminaries and change agents to the faculty, such as Michael Zubkoff, now a professor of health economics and management, and the late Jack Wennberg, a pioneer of unwarranted variation in the healthcare industry, whose contributions to the medical school and the nation’s health systems remain influential.
Those recruitments led to the founding of the Center for the Evaluative Clinical Sciences (now the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice), the Dartmouth Atlas, the MPH degree among others, a strong partnership with the Tuck School of Business, and other pivotal programs, many of which are still in existence.
“Jim provided the foundation for the school we know today,” said Joseph O’Donnell, emeritus professor of medicine and of psychiatry. “His mentorship touched so many students and colleagues, especially in international health. One of his great loves was international medicine, especially in underdeveloped countries and conflict zones.”
In the years following his deanship, Strickler took a different path, and devoted himself to humanitarian medicine, caring for refugees and conflict-affected communities across Asia, Africa, the Balkans, and beyond through the International Rescue Committee (IRC). For more than four decades, he shaped the IRC not only through his vision and governance, but through the example he set as a physician who chose, repeatedly, to show up in person for the people the organization served.
As chair of the IRC's executive committee from 1990 to 1999, he was the driving force behind the creation of the IRC's health unit—building the case for, and helping establish, a dedicated unit to provide medical care to refugees and displaced people—and personally helped recruit the IRC's first full-time staff physician.
When he joined the IRC Board in 1982, refugee health programs across the organization were largely run by highly motivated volunteers, but lacked a structure led by health professionals.
Strickler changed that.
His legacy lives on in the health systems he helped build, the governance structures he helped design, and in the countless refugees and displaced people who received care because of the programs he fought to build.
Thousands of refugees around the world have benefited from Strickler's care.
He also spearheaded the Dartmouth project to assist post-war Kosovo in rebuilding its healthcare infrastructure and systems and later led Dartmouth's longstanding work in that country.
With George Little, now active emeritus professor of pediatrics and of obstetrics and gynecology, he co-founded Action for Mothers and Children, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of mothers and children in Kosovo.
Strickler’s commitment to maternal and newborn health continues shaping their mission today.
“Under his leadership, we created the Dartmouth-Kosovo Alliance to reduce both the high maternal mortality and fetal mortality rates and implemented a system of nonprofit support—the Foundation for Healthy Mothers and Babies which became Action for Mothers and Children,” Little said.
“In addition to being an academic clinician in a profession he loved, Jim’s values and interpersonal dynamics in both his career and with his family were the same. Among the general population and with those he served in Kosovo, he was often fondly known as Poppa Jim.”
James Strickler Photo Gallery:
In March of this year, Action for Mothers and Children launched the Strickler Fellowship, a new initiative to strengthen long-term healthcare collaboration between Kosovo and the United States while developing the next generation of clinical leaders in maternal and child health.
The fellowship honors Strickler whose vision, leadership, and dedication to sustainable capacity-building shaped nearly two decades of partnership between Kosovo and Dartmouth College.
“Dartmouth owes an enormous debt of gratitude to Jim Strickler for his service, including his consistent support of our global health work,” said Lisa V. Adams MED’90, director of the Center for Global Health Equity. “He began working with refugees from the conflict in Kosovo in 1999, and since then had forged a strong bilateral exchange partnership between Geisel and the University of Prishtina and its affiliated medical center.”
In 2021, President Atifete Jahjaga of Kosovo visited Dartmouth to explore ways to further expand the partnership, and to present him with the Humanitarian Medal of Mother Teresa for his work.
“He was a true humanitarian,” Adams said. And because of his commitment to global health, she and her colleagues named the bilateral exchange program with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania in his honor: the James Strickler Clinical Elective in Global Health.
Donald Kollisch, associate professor of medicine and of community and family medicine recalled Strickler’s notable and impressive life beyond academics and in the Upper Valley community.
After retiring as dean, “He re-tooled himself from being an academic nephrologist to a practicing geriatrician. And he made important contributions to global health as a leader of the International Rescue Committee.
“He and his family were active and cherished members of the Norwich/Hanover community—he was a grand friend to many, and his passing leaves many memories.”
Strickler enjoyed being a physician and an educator. Those who knew him describe him as physician and leader of rare humility—quick to share credit, and quietly steadfast in his commitment to quality and others.
He once said everything he had done—whether with the health unit of the IRC or developing academic programs at the medical school, the essential motivation was the same: reaching out in a constructive way to help others.
Truly a man for others, Strickler saw everything as a team effort. In a 2002 interview about the strides the medical school made over the years, he said, “I can honestly say that every dean I've known since my days in office has contributed significantly towards the improvement and academic stature of this medical school and the medical center.”
He left an indelible mark not only on the medical school but on international organizations and on the lives of those he served around the world.
A memorial service remembering a life of remarkable service and care will be held later. We will share those details with the community as they become available.