Dr. Edward H. McGehee, medical director

Posted 2/7/12

Dr. Edward H. McGehee, 90, a former director of medicine at Chestnut Hill Hospital, died of heart failure Jan. 29 at Cathedral Village in Andorra where he had been a resident for the past five years. …

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Dr. Edward H. McGehee, medical director

Posted

Dr. Edward H. McGehee, 90, a former director of medicine at Chestnut Hill Hospital, died of heart failure Jan. 29 at Cathedral Village in Andorra where he had been a resident for the past five years.

Dr. McGehee, who was medical director at Chestnut Hill Hospital from 1966 to 1970, also had been director of family medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

He began a family practice from his home in Chestnut Hill in 1953 and worked as an attending physician at Chestnut Hill Hospital from 1954 to 1973 and as a hematologist at Pennsylvania Hospital from 1966 to 1970.

In 1974 he became the first full-time faculty member of Jefferson’s new department of family medicine and served as chairman of the department from 1990 to 1992. He received a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1977, and in 1989 he was named director of the Jefferson/Kendal Crosslands fellowship in geriatrics.

The McGehee Loan Fund was set up in 1996 by longtime patients to support the education of third- and fourth-year students of family or internal medicine.

Born in Mobile, Ala., Dr. McGehee earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a medical degree from what is now Jefferson Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. After interning in Mobile and serving in the Navy, he completed a fellowship in pathology at Jefferson and a research fellowship in hematology at Pennsylvania Hospital.

He also completed a Thomas McCrae fellowship sponsored by Pennsylvania Hospital at Guy’s Hospital in Southwark, London.

He was a former president of the Philadelphia Society of Hematology, a laureate of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American College of Physicians and president of the Jefferson medical alumni association.

He was a member of the vestry at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, the St. Andrew's Society and the Philadelphia Cricket Club.

Dr. McGehee is survived by a son, Edward H. Jr.; daughters Virginia Condon and Sarah Komisin, and five grandchildren. His wife, Carolyn, died in 2005. A son, James, died in 1985.

A life celebration will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, at St. Paul's Church, 22 E. Chestnut Hill Ave., followed by a reception at Cathedral Village's Presser Lounge. – WF

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