E. Grey Dimond, MD, MACC

An early president of the ACC and founder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine, E. Grey Dimond, MD, MACC, passed away Sunday, Nov. 3, 2013. He was 94 years old and at the time of his death, was the oldest surviving past ACC president. Dimond was the youngest ACC president, having led the College from 1961 to 1962 at age 42.

Dimond was born on his mother’s birthday, Dec. 8, 1918 in St. Louis, MO, but he grew up in Terre Haute, IN. As a youth, Dimond enjoyed sports, lettered in high school in football and track, and competed in football and boxing at Purdue University. He earned his medical degree in 1944 from Indiana University and went on to complete post-graduate training at Indiana Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dimond served in the U.S. Army medical corps and was chief of cardiology for the 42nd and 49th General Hospital in Tokyo for 10 years. Dimond’s military experience overseas inspired a lifelong commitment to improving international relations in Asia. On a 1971 trip organized by a journalist friend, he and his teacher, Paul Dudley White, MD, were the first American physicians to visit China in more than two decades. Subsequently, he made 40 trips to Asia, and led the ACC in the establishment of International Circuit Courses in 1961 with a mission to the Philippines and Taiwan. Dimond also hosted numerous American groups on visits to China, brought many students from China to the U.S. and in 1980, adopted a daughter from China.

In addition to his international work, Dimond led the department of medicine at the University of Kansas Medical Center; was founder and head of the Institute for Cardiopulmonary Diseases at the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, CA; and was a consultant in medical education to the Department of Health, Education and Welfare in Washington, DC, before returning to Kansas City where he founded the UMKC School of Medicine. Dimond and his wife, Mary Clark Dimond, expanded the scholars’ center at UMKC which is now known as the Mary Clark and E. Grey Dimond Scholars’ Center. Additionally, Dimond is the author of 16 books, including detailed summaries of his ancestors: the Dimonds, the Whiteheads, the Morrisons and the Schmidts.

Dimond is survived by his four daughters, three grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren. A memorial will be held on Dec. 8 in Kansas City, Missouri on the campus of UMKC in celebration of the shared birthdays of Dimond and his mother. He was descended from prominent original settlers of the state of Mississippi and his ashes will be placed in the family plot in Winona, MS.

The family requests that memorial contributions may be made to the E. Grey Dimond Memorial Fund c/o Diastole, 2501 Holmes Street, Kansas City, MO, 64108.

Keywords: Washington, Students, Mississippi, Spouses, Consultants, Universities, Massachusetts, Missouri, Philippines, Financial Management, China, Kansas, Religious Missions, Internationality, Military Personnel, Taiwan, Tokyo, Diastole, Indiana, Education, Medical, United States, Hospitals, General

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