Obituary Roger M. Des Prez

     Roger Moister Des Prez died on August 28, 2009 of renal failure at home in Nashville Tennessee.  Born and raised in Chicago, Roger came to Dartmouth after 21 months in the Army.  He then completed the combined Dartmouth College and Medical School, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and finished his medical schooling at the Columbia College for Physicians and Surgeons in 1954.  After internships and residency at New York Hospital, he worked for the Indian Health Service directing the Fort Defiance Tuberculosis Sanitarium in New Mexico. He returned to New York Hospital as a fellow, instructor and later moving to assistant professor of medicine in Nashville's VA Hospital in 1963, become its Chief of Medicine.

     For 32 years he cared for patients as he supervised and mentored medical students, residents and physicians.  He also was a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.  After retirement in 1995 and in spite of the onset of macular degeneration, he returned to Vanderbilt in 1996 when he joined the faculty of the School of Nursing as a clinical professor of Nursing and preceptor at Vine Hill Community Clinic. 

     Through the last 13 years of his life, he worked daily at the clinic, mentoring dedicated nurse practioners as he collaborated with them in the care of patients.  Throughout his career in the medical and nursing schools, he received multiple honors for his research, teaching and mentoring.

     He was preceded in death by a daughter, Sarah and a son, Walter.  He is survived by his wife, Patsy and children Roger, Edward, Patricia, Julia and Eleanor and eight grandchildren.