This is the first post in a three-part series about Dr. Eugene A. Stead, Jr. (1908-2005), professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine from 1947 to 1967. To spotlight the addition to and reprocessing of the Eugene A. Stead Jr. Papers, this post introduces Stead, highlighting his accomplishments and career, and honors his role in beginning the physician assistant program at Duke University, the first in the nation, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
The second post delves into Stead’s family life. In 2020, the Archives received an addition from the Physician Assistant Historical Society of mostly photographic materials, including thirty albums and scrapbooks likely assembled by Stead’s wife, Evelyn Selby Stead.
The third post discusses how the Archives preserved the scrapbooks and the steps we took to maintain context while separating materials for preservation.
Eugene Anson Stead Jr. was born in Georgia in 1908. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Emory University (BS, 1928; MD, 1932) and interned at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston (1934-1937). He was a resident at the Cincinnati General Hospital (1935-1936) and held a faculty position at Harvard University (1938-1941) and Boston City Hospital. In 1942, he returned to Georgia to chair the Department of Medicine at Emory University and was named dean of the School of Medicine at Emory in 1946. He left this position one year later to become professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at Duke University, where he stayed until 1967.
In addition to his teaching and administrative work, Stead is highly regarded for starting the physician assistant program, the first in the nation, at Duke University in 1965. In the 1950s, Duke Hospital faced an increased demand for services and a shortage of all types of nursing and allied health personnel. Stead envisioned an intermediary role, a physician assistant who could provide clinical support to physicians with minimal supervision, allowing physicians to leave their practices to pursue continuing education opportunities. Stead recruited the first students to begin the program at Duke University; the two-year program supplied physicians with knowledgeable personnel who could help meet the growing demand for their services.
His experience running Emory’s Grady Hospital during World War II convinced him that residents and medical students could be trained to help doctors in patient care, an experience echoed when he worked with veterans of the Korean War who had learned clinical skills while overseas but who lacked formal medical education. Stead also observed the experiences of busy rural practitioners in North Carolina who sought to meet the needs of their patients. Amos N. Johnson, MD, operated a family medicine practice in Garland, a small town in Sampson County in the 1940s and 1950s. Johnson, who frequently traveled to medical conferences to advocate for establishing family medicine as its own specialty, trained his office assistant, Henry Lee “Buddy” Treadwell, to provide services to patients in his absence, leaving the practice in Treadwell’s capable hands. By the 1960s, Duke medical students had the option to receive community-based clinical training at Johnson and Treadwell’s well-known practice, aligning with Stead’s vision to provide training to students as physician assistants.
Beyond starting a formalized training program for physician assistants, Stead is remembered for his ability to advocate for his patients at their most vulnerable moments and by his many students for his mentorship and passion for medical education. Users of this collection can find evidence of Stead’s impact in thank you letters in the Correspondence Series. Stead’s influence on his students is evident in the Awards and Honors Series, particularly his recognition from Duke medical students with a Golden Apple Award for Teaching (1963), as well as publications in the Writings Series, including copies of “Just Say for Me,” a collection of sayings (“Steadisms”) compiled in 1968 by former students Fred Schoonmaker, MD, and Earl Metz, MD, during their final year of residency. Materials in the Photographic Materials Series also point to Stead’s role as a mentor well into his years as professor emeritus; a 1976 photograph of Stead with Judith Lea Swain, MD, honors Stead as “The Professor.”
Photograph of Judith Lea Swain, MD (who then went by “Judy Swain”), as a medical student with Stead at the Stead family lake house. Photographic Materials Series, Individuals, undated.
The Eugene A. Stead Jr. Papers reflect Stead’s personal and professional life in his correspondence, subject files, grant materials, writings, speeches, manuscript materials, certificates, awards, photographs, family albums, clippings, and audiotapes. Stay tuned for future posts about the scrapbooks and family albums recently added to the collection, which document the history of the Stead family and illustrate the guiding influence Stead’s family life had on the work he did every day.
For more about the Archives’ holdings, search and explore our finding aids or collection guides.
For any questions, contact the Archives staff.
This blog post was contributed by Medical Center Archives Intern Kayla Cavenaugh.
References
Carter, Reginald, Ph.D, PA. Society for the Preservation of Physician Assistant History. Inc., Johns Creek, GA. Biography, Eugene A. Stead, Jr., MD. (2001) Retrieved at https://pahx.org/bios/stead-jr-eugene/.
Carter, Reginald, Ph.D, PA. Society for the Preservation of Physician Assistant History. Inc., Johns Creek, GA. Biography, Henry Lee “Buddy” Treadwell. (2012) Retrieved at https://pahx.org/bios/treadwell-henry-lee-buddy/.
Duke University Medical Center Archives Blog. Leading the Way: Stead, Duke and the Physician Assistant Program. Accessed June 2025. https://mcarchives.duke.edu/leading-way-stead-duke-and-physician-assistant-program.