The Associated Press 
Tuesday May 20, 2003, 06:55:07 PM 

Dr. William Longmire, a UCLA medical school founder, dies at 89.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Dr. William Longmire Jr., a founder of the University of California, Los Angeles, medical school and a pioneering surgeon, has died, according to the university. He was 89.

Longmire died Friday from cancer, UCLA spokeswoman Roxanne Moster said.

"He was an extraordinarily successful, truly internationally known surgeon regarded by just about everyone as being seen as the best in the world," said Dr. Timothy Miller, a plastic surgeon at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and who trained under Longmire. "It would be probably impossible to fully explain or to describe his impact on surgery and on surgical education," Miller said.

Longmire came to Los Angeles in 1948 as the first chairman of surgery at UCLA. He served in that position until 1976, then continued to practice medicine at UCLA and became professor emeritus in 1984.

Born in Sapulpa, Okla., Longmire graduated from the University of Oklahoma and Johns Hopkins Medical School. He maintained his father's family medicine practice in Sapulpa for two years before starting his surgical training in Baltimore.

He developed a number of operations while at Johns Hopkins and was part of the first surgical team to successfully perform the "Baby Blue" operation, a procedure that allowed infants with a severe heart deformity to live a normal life, UCLA said.

Longmire is survived by his wife, Sarah Jane Cornelius of Baltimore, daughters Sarah Jane Longmire-Cook and Gil Longmire, and three grandchildren. Memorial services were being planned.

 

 

 

 

 

William P. Longmire, Jr. was born on September 14, 1913 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma where he spent his early life. He was one of four children, two of whom died in early childhood. His mother was a grade school teacher and the daughter of a Missouri state court justice. He served as president of his senior class at Sapulpa High School and achieved a most acceptable scholastic record but became a more highly motivated student after he entered college at the University of Oklahoma. His own interest and propensity for hard work attracted the attention of a number of his instructors, one of whom was Dr. Aute Richards, chairman of the department of zoology. He was impressed with Dr. Longmire’s studies in the biological sciences and strongly encouraged him to apply for medical school at Johns Hopkins, the only school to which he submitted an application. In college, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and was chosen one of the ten outstanding students.

Also see http://www.williamlongmire.org/