The
Jack W. Cole Society
Jack
W. Cole, M.D.
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>The Jack W.
Cole Society is the Yale PA chapter of the Student Academy of the American
Academy of Physician Assistants. The Society participates in community
service projects, secures speakers on various topics, organizes social
events, helps resolve problems that arise in the Program, and assists
new students in becoming acclimated to the New Haven area.
Jack
Westley Cole - Founding Father of the Yale Physician Associate Program
Dr. Jack W.
Cole earned his BS degree from the University of Oregon in 1939 and received
his M.D. degree in 1944 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
After completing his surgical residency at the University Hospital of
Cleveland, Ohio, he taught at the Western Reserve University where he
attained tenure as faculty professor. He entered into the military and
served as Captain in the Medical Corps and Chief of Surgery of the 120th
Station in Bayreuth, Germany. Upon fulfilling his military duties, he
accepted the position of Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Hahnemann
University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1963. Dr. Cole came to Yale
three years later and served as the Chairman of the Department of Surgery
from 1966 through 1986. During that time, he also served as Director of
the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Yale from 1978-1986 and subsequently
retired in 1986.
In the late
1960s, in response to an overwhelming need for improvement in the area
of trauma care, Dr. Cole applied for grants from the Commonwealth Fund.
He was awarded 3 million dollars to support the proposal which was to
provide better-equipped ambulances, hospitals and properly trained personnel.
As part of the endeavor, the Yale Physician Associate Program was conceived
to train medical personnel to assist in the surgical and medical management
of patients. In January 1971, the Program admitted its first class of
PA students who graduated in 1973. As of the graduating class of September
2001, the Yale PA Program has graduated 684 physician associates.
Dr. Cole
in the 1960s as one of the new members of
the Yale faculty overlooks Cedar Street. |
Dr. Cole has
traveled the country and the world as a visiting professor including positions
in London, Saigon and Taiwan, and was twice a Woodrow Wilson National
Foundation Visiting Fellow. His involvement in professional societies
has been immeasurable. He is a founding member of the American Trauma
Society, and he was president of the New England Cancer Society and member
of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Institutional Research Grants
of the American Cancer Society. Besides his numerous contributions to
the field of medical education, he has served as a member of the Advisory
Committee on Graduate Education of the American Medical Association, and
was on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cancer Research Institute
at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Cole died
June 17, 2002 in Camden, ME, at the age of 81.
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