1960s - White

Augustus A. White, M.D., HS ’66, was recently appointed master of the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society, one of four academic societies at Harvard Medical School. As master, his goal is to help educate students to be excellent scientists and clinicians who will provide compassionate care to all of their patients, while preserving their own well-being in order to serve happily for many years. White, who focuses on the spine, is a professor of orthopaedic surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a member of the Health Sciences and Technology faculty at Harvard Medical School. He also served as orthopaedic surgeon-in-chief at Beth Israel Hospital for 13 years. The American Orthopaedic Association honored White in June in Palm Beach, Fla., by naming him the Arthur R. Shands, Jr., Lecturer, for outstanding contributions to the orthopaedic profession. He delivered a lecture titled “Our Humanitarian Orthopaedic Opportunity,” in which he described the serious racial disparities in health care in the United States, which he attributed to racial bias. He spoke about the history of this phenomenon and challenged his audience to try to eliminate health care disparities for society’s well-being.