Stanley J. Dudrick, MD, FACS, FACN

Born in Nanticoke, PA, April 9, 1935, Stanley J. Dudrick, MD, FACS, received a B.S. Cum Laude with Biology Honors in 1957 from Franklin and Marshall College, and was awarded the Williamson Medal as the outstanding member of his class. His M.D. degree was conferred by The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1961, followed by General Surgery residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the UPENN faculty and ascended in rank from Instructor to Professor of Surgery in five years. In 1972, he was recruited to Houston as the first Professor and Founding Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the new University of Texas Medical School at Houston. Concurrently, he served as Professor of Surgery at the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Cancer Center. In 1975, he founded the first helicopter ambulance service in the United States, LifeFlight. In 1988, he was appointed as Chairman of the Department of Surgery of Pennsylvania Hospital, the Nation’s first hospital.

In 1994, he was recruited to Yale University Medical School as Professor of Surgery, and Program Director in Surgery, then Chairman, of the Department of Surgery, at Saint Mary’s Hospital/Yale Affiliate in Waterbury, CT. Yale granted him a Master of Arts Honoris Causa in 1999. In 2000-2003, he was Chairman of Surgery at Bridgeport Hospital where he helped integrate it with the Yale/New Haven Health System. In 2009 the Stanley J. Dudrick, MD, Department of Surgery was designated in his honor by Saint Mary’s Hospital. In 2011, he joined Misericordia University, Dallas, PA, as the first Robert S. Anderson, M.D. Endowed Chair, Professor, and Medical Director of the Physician Assistant Studies Program. In 2012, he was elected Professor Emeritus of Surgery at Yale. Since 2013, he also has served as Professor of Surgery at The Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, Scranton, PA.

A Fellow of the American College of Surgeons since 1970, he received its Jacobson Innovation Award in 2005. He has more than 800 publications and holds membership in more than 100 academic, professional, and honorary medical and scientific societies including Alpha Omega Alpha, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi; his more than 210 honors and awards include the AMA Joseph B. Goldberger Award in Clinical Nutrition; the AMA Brookdale Award in Medicine; decorated Knight Hospitalier of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem; the Southern Medical Association Seale Harris Medal; the American Academy of Pediatrics Ladd Medal; the American College of Nutrition Goldsmith Award; the first Flance/Karl Award of the American Surgical Association. In 2007, the University of Pennsylvania Medical School awarded him the Distinguished Graduate Award, and he was awarded the President’s Medal by F&M College. In 2008, he received the Distinguished Service Award of the CT Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. In 2009, he received the American Surgical Association Medallion for Scientific Achievement for Distinguished Service to Surgery, its highest honor. In 2010, Misericordia University vested him with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters. In 2011, he received the Nathan Smith Award for Distinguished Service from the New England Surgical Society. In 2012, the Stanley J. Dudrick Hospital was dedicated in his honor in Skawina, Poland. In 2013, Franklin and Marshall College awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science and the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston awarded him its highest medal and established the annual Stanley J. Dudrick, MD, Lectureship at its 40th anniversary. He also received the Distinguished Service Award of The Society of Surgical Oncology. In 2014, the American College of Surgeons honored him with a video presentation as one of the “Heroes of American Surgery.” In 2016, he was cited by Medscape as one of the “Fifty Most Influential Physicians in History,” and in 2017, as one of the 25 “most influential physicians” of the past 100 years.

Dr. Dudrick and his wife Theresa reside in Eaton Center, NH, and are the proud parents of four daughters and two sons, grandparents of ten granddaughters and six grandsons, and the delighted great grandparents of five great grandchildren.

Dr. Dudrick’s goals are: “To provide optimal nutrition to all patients under all conditions at all times;” “To provide everything possible to enable his students to achieve their maximum God-given potentials;” and “To be as useful and productive to humanity and society as possible for as long as possible.”

Here you can watch the acceptance speech on behalf of Dudrick family given by his son, Stanley Dudrick Junior.