Strong medicine

Dr. Richard H. Dean was born in Radford, Virginia, on June 16, 1942. He received a bachelor of arts from the Virginia Military Institute in 1964 and a medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in 1968. He obtained his surgical training from Vanderbilt University and served for one year as a research instructor in vascular surgery at Northwestern University. In 1975, he joined the faculty of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, rising to the rank of professor of surgery and head of the Division of Vascular Surgery. Dr. Dean joined the faculty of the Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University (WFU) in December 1986 as the Richard T. Myers Professor of Surgery, chairman of the Department of Surgery, and chief of surgery at the North Caro-lina Baptist Hospital. He then became the director of the Division of Surgical Sciences two years later. During his academic career, Dr. Dean served on the American Board of Surgery, the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and as vice chair of the Association of Academic Health Center's Board of Directors. n 1998, Dr. Dean was appointed senior vice president for health affairs of Wake Forest University and director of the Wake Forest University / North Carolina Baptist Hospital Medi-cal Center. He was then also appointed as the first president and CEO of the newly formed WFU Health Sciences in 2002. Dr. Dean also served as the board chair of the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce in 2007 and was appointed to the NC Board for Economic Development (2007) and the State Judicial Council (2010). On June 30, 2007, Dr. Dean retired as presi-dent emeritus of Wake Forest University Health Sciences. He received an honorary doctorate degree from the Medical Uni-versity of Vienna in 2005, the 2008 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Medical College of Virginia, and in 2009, he was the recipient of Wake Forest University's highest honor, the Medallion of Merit.