The Annual Ira A. Ferguson Lecture to be Inaugurated by Dr. Charles Ferguson

On January 3, 2008, 7:00 am – 8:00 am, Dr. Charles M. Ferguson will deliver the First Annual Ira A. Ferguson Lecture at Emory Surgical Grand Rounds in the Emory Hospital Auditorium. Entitled "Ira A. Ferguson, Sr., MD, and the Other Tuskegee Experiment," Dr. Ferguson will examine his grandfather's role in initiating Alabama's first residency program for African-American surgeons at Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital in 1948, a significant event that has been overshadowed by the infamous syphilis experiment conducted at the institution from 1933-1972.

The establishment of the Ferguson Lecture was made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Ira Ferguson, Jr., to honor his father. Ira Jr. retired from Emory in 1990 after thirty years of exemplary service as a general surgeon.

Like his father and grandfather, Charles Ferguson received his MD at Emory and was an Emory faculty member, serving as an Assistant Professor of Surgery from 1984-1990. Now an Associate Professor of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also completed his surgical residency, Dr. Ferguson specializes in laparoscopic, biliary, and intestinal surgery.

Upon his return to Atlanta after meritorious service in World War II , Dr. Ira Ferguson, Sr., resumed teaching at Grady Memorial Hospital. To supplement his practice income he became a consultant to the Veterans Administration, regularly inspecting hospitals throughout the southeast such as Tuskegee and conducting disaster training courses for national defense. He was appointed Chief of Surgery at Grady in 1956 went on to take a vital role in integrating it with Emory and the Atlanta VA hospitals to create the Emory University Affiliated Programs, a unification that streamlined the curriculum and enhanced its effectiveness. In 1961, he retired from Grady to work solely at The Emory Clinic until his complete retirement in the late 1960s. After a lifetime of considerable academic, clinical, and national service, Dr. Ferguson died in February 1970.

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