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Contact Info
Home Town Salem, OR
Last Address Chicago, IL
Date of Passing Dec 08, 1959
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Ross Thomas McIntire
Vice Admiral, Surgeon General United States Navy
Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy Personal Physician to Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, 1932-1946
Ross T. McIntire was personal physician to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from 1932, and White House Physician from 1933-1946. During that time, he rose to the rank of Vice Admiral and Surgeon General of the Navy. The widespread presently-held view of Mcintire’s performance in that capacity is as an excellent and competent wartime administrator but as an abject failure as Presidential physician. While the former is undoubtedly correct, the latter could not be farther from the truth.
Dr. McIntire retired from the navy in 1947. Among his many distinguished subsequent appointments were as Director of the American Red Cross National Blood Bank Program and Executive Director of the International College of Surgeons. He ran unsuccessfully for congress in 1954.
The truth has now emerged. Ross T. McIntire was a physician of high competence and character and the epitome of the duty and honor of a naval officer, consistently compromising his own personal reputation in order to honor the wishes of his Commander-in-Chief. His recognition in this role is long overdue.
A January 29, 1945 letter to Albert Q. Maisel from Doctor Frank Lahey, a man not easily given to compliments, about McIntire sums it up well:
“I do not flatter him in the least when I say I have never known a more completely unselfish individual in such a high and influential position. He wants nothing for himself…Everywhere I go in the Navy, I talk with commanding officers and they all feel as I do, that the Navy and the country is blessed with such a Surgeon General.”
United States Navy Admiral. He received his medical degree from Willamette University, Salem OR, in 1912 and entered the Navy Medical Corps in 1917. He served aboard the cruiser New Orleans during World War I. He became the personal physician of President Roosevelt in February 1932 and held that position until Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945. He accompanied President Franklin D. Roosevelt on overseas trips including a cruise to Panama and Hawaii in June 1934 and Casablanca to meet with Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in 1943. He also became Harry S. Truman's personal physician until leaving the navy in 1946. He retired as Vice Admiral in 1947.
Other Comments:
Navy Distinguished Service Medal
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 348 (March 1946)
Citation: The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Distinguished Service Medal to Vice Admiral (MC) Ross T. McIntire, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States as Chief of Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and Surgeon General of the Navy from 7 December 1941 to 31 August 1945. Admiral McIntire directed the planning and the practical application of the vast program which provided medical care and supply for the Navy and Marine Corps on an unprecedented scale.
