David E. Rogers Collection, 1951-2007

Biographical Note

Dr. David E. Rogers was born on March 17, 1926 in New York City. He studied at Ohio State University and Miami University before attending Cornell University Medical College, where he received his medical degree in 1948. He did his residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1950 and 1951, he researched infectious diseases with Dr. Walsh McDermott at the New York Hospital. He then served as the Chief Resident in Medicine there from 1951-1952. In 1954 and 1955, Rogers was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center as well as a visiting investigator at the Rockefeller Institute with Dr. Rene Dubos. He became the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Cornell in 1955. He held the position until 1959, when he was appointed the Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University and Physician in Chief at the Vanderbilt University Hospital. 1968 brought him back to Johns Hopkins where he was the Dean of the Medical Faculty and Vice President for Medical Affairs. In 1972, he was made the first president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization focused on health. He was the president for 15 years. He moved on from the Foundation to become the first Walsh McDermott University Professor of Medicine at Cornell. Around this time, Dr. Rogers also became very involved in AIDS advocacy, serving on city, state, and national initiatives. He became a senior advisor at the New York Academy of Medicine in 1990. Dr. Rogers died of cancer on December 5, 1994

Rogers received many awards and honors. They include: United States Chamber of Commerce, Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Year Award, 1961; John Hopkins Society of Scholars, 1983; Abraham Flexner Award of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 1986; Distinguished Alumnus of the Vanderbilt School of Medicine, 1990; and the Gustave Leinhard Award of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, 1993.

Collection Description

Scope and Content

The collection comprises Dr. Jeremiah Barondess' files on his colleague and friend Dr. David E. Rogers. While there are some materials (mostly articles) sent from Rogers to Bardondess, many of the materials were created after Dr. Rogers' death in 1994. These include obituaries, tributes, and correspondence. The collection also includes Rogers' CVs, bibliographies, written works, talks, a transcription of an oral history, and 4 volumes of bound reprints.

Administrative Info

Requests for permission to quote from or publish any materials should be directed to the reference librarian or curator in writing.

Preferred Citation

David E. Rogers Collection. The Drs. Barry and Bobbi Coller Rare Book Reading Room, New York Academy of Medicine Library.

Provenance

Gift of Dr. Jeremiah Barondess, June 2012.

Collection Contents

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Index Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of The New York Academy of Medicine Library. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.