September 2007

 Dr. Garland Perdue: 1926–2007

Longtime vascular surgeon and transplant pioneer Dr. Garland D. Perdue passed away on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007. Born March 19, 1926, in the North Georgia town of Clermont and attending school in Gainesville, Dr. Perdue was awarded a scholarship to Emory University when he was 15. His academic career was interrupted by over two years of service in World War II as a highly decorated First Sergeant in the 311th Infantry Regiment throughout the European Theater.

A 1952 graduate of the Emory School of Medicine, Dr. Perdue became director of the division of vascular surgery at Emory in 1957. He became medical director of Emory University Hospital in 1983 and director of The Emory Clinic in 1984 — a role in which he served until 1993 when he became executive director of the Emory University System of Health Care.

A pioneering vascular surgeon, Dr. Perdue served on the faculty in Emory's Department of Surgery for over 40 years. He performed Georgia's first kidney transplant in 1966, established Emory's first vascular surgery training program, the first such program in the United States to receive accreditation, and developed the first stroke prevention program at Emory. Dr. Perdue was also co-author, with the late Dr. J.D. Martin, of a history of surgery at Emory. Since Dr. Perdue's landmark transplant in 1966, Emory's transplant program has grown to become the most extensive program in Georgia and a leader in the Southeast, with organ transplant programs in heart, lung, heart/lung, liver, kidney, kidney/pancreas, pancreas and islet cells, as well as programs for transplantation of bone marrow, cornea, skin and other tissue.

A Phi Beta Kappa and a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, Dr. Perdue belonged to numerous professional organizations and served as president of the Southern Association for Vascular Surgery, the North American Chapter of the International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery and the Atlanta Vascular Society. He was also a member of the board of directors of the Medical Association of Atlanta and the House of Delegates of the Medical Association of Georgia, as well as a fellow in both the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Cardiology.

In 2004, the Medical Alumni Association at Emory presented Dr. Perdue with its most significant symbol of recognition, the Award of Honor, and the Southern Association of Vascular Surgery named him the 2006 recipient of the Rudolph Matas Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a lifetime of excellence, achievement and contributions to the field of vascular surgery. Additionally, the Emory University School of Medicine recently established the Garland Perdue Lectureship in Vascular Surgery.

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