Was the ‘doctor’s doctor’ to many
Dr. James Duncan Kenney, a former associate dean of Yale School of Medicine
and a longtime clinical professor in its Department of Internal Medicine, died
of lung disease on Nov. 29. He was 78 years old.
T H I S
“Dr. Kenney is known to generations of Yale medical students and residents,
and to many thousands of physicians around the world who subscribed to The Medical
Letter, of which Dr. Kenney was a contributor and board member during his long
tenure as associate dean for postgraduate and continuing medical education,” said
Medical School Dean Dr. Robert Alpern in a letter to the community announcing
Kenney’s passing.
Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on July 27, 1929, Kenney was the son of the late Francis Joseph and Mary Duncan
Kenney. He graduated from the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, in 1947,
and the following year, he attended The Leys School in Cambridge, England,
as an English-Speaking Union scholar. He graduated from Yale in 1952 and earned
his medical degree from Boston University in 1956. Kenney served in the U.S.
Navy 1958-1960. His postgraduate training included fellowships at Georgetown
University Hospital, Buffalo General Hospital, and University College in London
where he studied human and population genetics under Professor L.S. Penrose.
In New Haven, Kenney provided a bridge between academia and the practicing
medical community. He taught local medical students and medical residents for
many years, and as associate dean for postgraduate and continuing medical education
1978-2001, he forwarded the education of his colleagues throughout the country.
He worked for The Medical Letter 1981-2007; there he drafted questions for
the more than 10,000 subscribers around the world who earned continuing education
credit for successfully completing the semiannual exams.
He also had a thriving practice in internal medicine and rheumatology from
1967 until his retirement in 2007. His patients included many of his colleagues,
for whom he was the “doctor’s doctor.”
Kenney was a past member of the boards of Gaylord Hospital and the Connecticut
Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. He was a fellow of the American College
of Physicians and a founding fellow of the American College of Rheumatology.
His publications include clinical studies, as well ?as reflections on the economics
of medical care and the relations of doctors and their patients. He was known
for bringing to bear on medical themes much that had he had learned from his
study of the Graeco-Roman classics.
His awards and honors included the Benedict R. Harris Award for teaching medical
students, election to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1995, and
membership in the advisory committee of the Program for Humanities in Medicine
at Yale. In 2002, within this program, the James D. Kenney Lectureship was established
in his honor, funded by one of his patients.
Kenney was a member of the Club at Mory’s, the Ladies’ Aid, and the
Elizabethan Club. At Yale, he was a fellow of Branford College and belonged to
the Yale University Library Associates, the Associates of the Cushing/ Whitney
Medical Library and the Beaumont Medical Club. He served as a trustee of St.
Mary’s Church in New Haven for over 30 years.
He is survived by his wife, Elise Karas; his son, Christopher, and daughter,
Anne; his daughter-in-law, Kathryn Lawson Kenney, and son-in-law, V. Ming Lew;
his grandchildren Frances, Winifred, Oliver and Lucy; and a sister, Margaret
Kenney Berkey.
Donations in Kenney’s memory may be sent to the Arthritis Foundation, Rocky
Hill, Connecticut; Connecticut Hospice; or the American Lung Association of Connecticut.
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Dr. James Kenney, was the ‘doctor’s doctor’ to many
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Campus Notes
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