The Johns Hopkins Gazette: March 9, 1998
Mar. 9 1998
VOL. 27, NO. 25

  

Obituary:
Richard Stauffer, Head Orthopaedic Surgeon at Hopkins, Dies At 59

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Richard N. Stauffer, the Robert A. Robinson Professor, chairman and director of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the School of Medicine, died Feb. 27 after a short illness. He was 59.

Stauffer, since 1991 also orthopaedic surgeon-in-chief for The Johns Hopkins Hospital, was considered an international authority for his research in the biomechanics of total joint replacements, joint motion and forces in walking, and the evaluation of patients with total joint replacements. His contributions in both clinical and research aspects of hip disease were recognized by his peers in the national Hip Society, who gave him the John Charnley Award for outstanding research in hip disease in 1988.

Stauffer was on the board of directors of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, chairing that group's Committee on Research from 1981 to 1987; president of the Orthopaedic Research Society; a member of the executive committee of the American Orthopaedic Association; and chair of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on medical devices. He also served on the editorial boards of Archives of Surgery and Journal of Arthroplasty and was editor-in-chief for Atlas of Orthopaedic Surgical Exposure and Advances in Operative Orthopaedics.

At Hopkins, Stauffer served as chairman of the medical staff and as a trustee for The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also served on many committees including the Executive Committee for Surgery and the Re-engineering Steering Committee, and was instrumental in working with his colleagues to reorganize the governance of the Clinical Practice Association of the School of Medicine.

Stauffer was born in 1938 in Kearney, Neb., and raised in Hastings, Neb. He received his bachelor's degree from Hastings College in 1959 and his medical degree from Northwestern University School of Medicine in 1963.

He completed his internship in surgery at Chicago Wesley Memorial Hospital and his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. He served a stint in the U.S. Navy, from 1965 to 1967, in the middle of his residency.

Stauffer joined the faculty of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, in 1970, as an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery. In 1972, he joined the Mayo Medical School and Clinic, where he spent 19 years, advancing from an instructor in orthopaedic surgery to a full professor. He joined Hopkins in March 1991.

Survivors include his wife, Kathleen, and three grown children.

Memorial services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to either the Orthopaedic Surgery Research Fund or the Pulmonary Medicine Fund for Dr. Peter Terry, c/o The Johns Hopkins University Development Office at 601 N. Caroline St., #6260B, Baltimore, Md. 21287-0881.


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