C. Everett Koop ’37

C. Everett Koop ’37, M.D., passed away in Hanover on February 25 of natural causes. A member of the Dartmouth Outing Club and Alpha Sigma Phi as an undergraduate, “Chick” earned a degree in zoology and then an attended Cornell Medical College to earn an M.D. in 1941. He was named a professor of pediatric surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1959 and also served as surgeon-in-chief of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. During his 1981-89 tenure as the U.S. surgeon general, “America’s Family Doctor”—with his iconic suspenders, bowties and clipped beard—increased public understanding of the link between tobacco and cancer, addressed national concerns about HIV/AIDS with poise and compassion, and called attention to the importance of diet and nutrition, the benefits of physical activity, mental health issues, environmental health hazards, disease prevention and health promotion. In 1992 he returned to Dartmouth to found the C. Everett Koop Institute at the Giesel School of Medicine as a partnership of educators, scholars, researchers and physicians dedicated to developing programs addressing critical healthcare issues and shaping medical school curricula to create “doctors for the 21st century.” He was an involved alumnus, serving Dartmouth as a member of the class executive committee (1997-2013) and class agent (1993) and as an overseer of the Dartmouth Medical School (2002-13). He is survived by his children Allen ’65, a visiting professor of history at Dartmouth, Norman and Elizabeth; wife Cora; and eight grandchildren. He was predeceased by his son David ’69.