{"id":36190,"date":"2026-07-07T17:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=36190"},"modified":"2026-07-07T17:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T21:29:11","slug":"dean-emeritus-of-geisel-school-of-medicine-and-global-health-pioneer-james-c-strickler-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2026\/dean-emeritus-of-geisel-school-of-medicine-and-global-health-pioneer-james-c-strickler-dies\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean Emeritus of Geisel School of Medicine and Global Health Pioneer James C. Strickler Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dean Emeritus James Strickle introduces Kosovo President Jahjaga during a reception at the Hood Museum of Art in 2012. (photo by Eli Burak '00)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

James C. Strickler, MD (D\u201950 DMS\u201951), 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s academic and clinical departments, develop a new curriculum for medical students, and to design and plan an academic medical school. At that time, Dartmouth\u2019s 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\u2019s decision to transition to a full MD degree.<\/p>\n

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\u2014he believed that institutions were only as strong as the range of voices shaping them.<\/p>\n

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James Strickler, dean of Dartmouth Medical School in 1979. (Photo: Dartmouth Medicine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During his tenure at Dartmouth, including eight years as dean from 1973 \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

He established the medical school\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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\u2019s health systems remain influential.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cJim provided the foundation for the school we know today,\u201d said Joseph O\u2019Donnell<\/a>, emeritus professor of medicine and of psychiatry. \u201cHis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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First-year faculty member James Strickler (third from left), welcomes first-year medical students (left to right) William Rix, Linda Quan, Kenneth Dardick, Roland Stoller, Virginia Harris, and Richard Thorner. (Dartmouth Medical School Quarterly Summer 1967)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2014building the case for, and helping establish, a dedicated unit to provide medical care to refugees and displaced people\u2014and personally helped recruit the IRC's first full-time staff physician.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Strickler changed that.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Thousands of refugees around the world have benefited from Strickler's care.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

With George Little<\/a>, now active emeritus professor of pediatrics and of obstetrics and gynecology, he co-founded Action for Mothers and Children<\/a>, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of mothers and children in Kosovo.<\/p>\n

Strickler\u2019s commitment to maternal and newborn health continues shaping their mission today.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder 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\u2014the Foundation for Healthy Mothers and Babies which became Action for Mothers and Children,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to being an academic clinician in a profession he loved, Jim\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

James Strickler Photo Gallery:<\/strong><\/p>\n