REMEMBERING PARKLAND’S CEO DR. RON J. ANDERSON

Ron J. Anderson, MD, a national spokesperson for public health issues and a champion for the poor and medically underserved, died Sept. 11, 2014 of cancer. He was 68 years old. Services are pending.

A native of Chickasha, OK, Dr. Anderson was President and CEO of Parkland Health & Hospital System for 29 years, a job he assumed in 1982 at the age of 35 after serving for two years as Medical Director of Parkland’s Emergency Room
and Outpatient Clinic and Head of The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s Division of Internal Medicine. He retired in 2011. In his final years at Parkland he led the successful bond campaign that secured public financing for the new $1.3 billion Parkland hospital due to open in mid-2015.

On Sept. 10, the Parkland Board of Managers unanimously endorsed a plan led by Parkland Foundation to place a commemorative statue in the new hospital and to name Parkland’s new medical/surgical outpatient clinic after Dr. Anderson. In the 1980s, Dr. Anderson suggested setting up health clinics in Dallas’ poorest neighborhoods, convincing skeptical Board members and local officials of the need. Parkland now operates a dozen Community Oriented Primary Care clinics throughout the county, making primary and preventive health care more accessible.”

“Dr. Anderson epitomized the ideal of the servant leader,” said Debbie D. Branson, Chair of Parkland’s Board of Managers. “His passionate dedication to improve health care for the poor and underserved inspired a generation of caregivers. He successfully advocated on the local, state and national levels to expand services and helped to ensure the viability of Parkland and all public safety-net hospitals in the U.S.”

To his colleagues and friends, Dr. Anderson was not only an outstanding doctor and administrator, but a man of the highest integrity and honor.