W. Allen Addison Oral History Interviews, 2017-2017

Using These Materials Teaser

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:
None.
More about accessing and using these materials...

Summary

Creator:
Addison, W. Allen
Abstract:
Dr. W. Allen Addison, MD, is the Walter L. Thomas Professor Emeritus at the Duke University School of Medicine and a past president of the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons. This collection contains 1 oral history interview conducted in two parts on September 18 and September 19, 2018 by Joseph O'Connell. Throughout the interviews, Winifred Allen Addison and Sally Bender Addison discuss Dr. Addison's medical career from his upbringing in Toccoa, Georgia, through his ultimate position at Duke as Walter L. Thomas Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The topics span Addison's personal life and relationships; his areas of medical specialization; and his experience of Duke University and Duke Medical Center as an institution.
Extent:
2 interviews (1 transcript) and 1.74 GB
Language:
English
Collection ID:
OH.ADDISONW

Background

Scope and content:

Includes 2 oral history interviews with Dr. W. Allen and Sally Addison conducted on September 18 and September 19, 2017 by Joseph O'Connell.

In the 2017 interviews, Winifred Allen Addison and Sally Bender Addison discuss Dr. Addison's medical career from his upbringing in Toccoa, Georgia, through his ultimate position at Duke as Walter L. Thomas Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The topics span Addison's personal life and relationships; his areas of medical specialization; and his experience of Duke University and Duke Medical Center as an institution.

Biographical / historical:

Dr. Winifred Allen Addison, MD, was born in the small town of Toccoa, Georgia, which he left in 1952 to attend Duke University. He wanted to pursue a career in medicine. For the next 52 years, Duke served as the primary backdrop of Addison's development as a physician and surgeon. By the time of his retirement as Walter L. Thomas Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Addison had made major contributions to the practice of gynecological surgery and to the lives of the people with whom he worked.

Within the field of medicine, Addison found his calling in Obstetrics and Gynecology. His interest in reproductive medicine took root early in life, when he helped care for animals on the family farm. As a medical student, this interest flourished under the tutelage of Dr. Ed Hamblen. In 1961, when the opportunity arose to work with Hamblen as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fellow, Addison didn't look back. Crucially, Addison also found that he could overcome the obstacles to performing surgery as a left-handed person. Contrary to his expectations, Addison thrived in the operating room. He developed a capacity for extended cancer and reconstructive surgeries-operations with a high degree of difficulty and long duration.

Addison spent several periods working in Georgia during his early career, but found a permanent home at Duke in 1976. His quick wit and Toccoa accent became as much a fixture of the institution as his surgical skills. One of Addison's most important achievements is his work on sacral colpopexy, a surgery for pelvic reconstruction. Defying the conventional wisdom of the time, Addison demonstrated the superior results of sacral colpopexy and influenced its widespread adoption in the 1980s. When asked why he returned to Duke, Addison once told a colleague, "It was the only place I ever really felt at home."

Addison and his wife, Sally live in Hillsborough, North Carolina, where they keep horses.

Acquisition information:
Accession A2018.014 (transferred by Joe O'Connell, October 2017)
Processing information:

Processed by Lucy Waldrop: April 2018

Arrangement:
Organized into the following series: Interviews, September 18 and September 19, 2017.
Rules or conventions:
DACS

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

None.

Terms of access:

Copyright for Official University records is held by Duke University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], W. Allen Addison Oral History Interviews, Duke University Medical Center Archives.