James E. Cavanagh Jr. ’51

James E. Cavanagh Jr. ’51, M.D., a distinguished surgeon and medical school teacher, died in Tallahassee, Florida, on May 7. He had been honored by his class with its “Spirit of ’51” award at its 2021 70th reunion. Jim was a graduate of Dartmouth Medical School and was recognized as the glue that bound together his DMS classmates through the years; he connected regularly via notes and calls and arranged biennial reunions. He served on the class executive committee. He was an accomplished general surgeon and a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. After receiving his M.D. from Harvard in 1954 he practiced in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Tallahassee. He retired from practice in 1997 and took on a full-time volunteer role as a teacher of anatomy to first-year students at Florida State University Medical School. He continued in this role until past the age of 90, working closely with more than 2,000 students across 25 years. Standing ovations from his students attested to his excellence as a teacher and mentor. Jim was an active amateur ornithologist, spotting and studying 95 percent of this continent’s known species. He was passionate about conservation and protecting the environment and served on the boards of several organizations devoted to protecting freshwater lakes and springs. He believed in giving back, and earlier in his career he spent a summer treating leprosy patients in Haiti. Jim’s father, brother, and two of his sons are also Dartmouth alumni.