Dean of Medical School dies

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33230, 21 May 1973, Page 19

Dean of Medical School dies

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, May 18. The Dean of the Otago Medical School (Professor W. E. Adams) died in Dunedin today, aged 65.

Professor Adams was admitted to hospital on Wednesday after being ill for several days with a chest infection. Born in New Zealand in 1908, Professor Adams was educated in England from 1914 to 1918, and then in New Zealand at the Wanganui Collegiate School. Professor Adams graduated from the Otago University College, M.Sc., B.Med-Sc., and M. 8., Ch.B., and gained a number of awards.

He graduated Ph.D. from the University of Leeds, and D.Sc. from the University of New Zealand. He was elected a fellow of the Academy of Zoologists (India), fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and an honorary fellow of the

Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

Professor Adams held the appointments of senior demonstrator in anatomy at the University of Otago (1935 to 1938), lecturer in anatomy at the University of Leeds (1938 to 1944), and professor of anatomy at the University of Otago (1944 to 1968), after which he was appointed Dean of the Otago Medical School. He was temporarily with the Carnegie Corporation in the United States, as a visiting professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and visited Nigeria as adviser on medical education to the Government there.

In 1968, Professor Adams became a member of the council of the University of Otago, the Medical Research Council, and the medical education committee of the Medical Council. In 1970, he became a member of the Otago Hospital Board.

Professor Adams is survived by his wife and a family of four.