Colin McCord, Class of 1949

A long-standing desire to work abroad led you to interrupt a thriving practice in heart surgery for what was intended to be two years of service developing and assessing rural health projects in the Punjab. But war between India and Pakistan drove you a year later to Bangladesh where for eight years you continued your efforts to improve the health of inhabitants of rural villages. You followed that with six years in Mozambique performing surgery and devising a system through which paraprofessionals were trained to perform the basic, life-saving forms of surgery that few in the rural areas of developing countries were qualified to undertake. When you returned home, then, it was no surprise that you chose to continue serving where you could be useful. As a surgeon at New York’s Harlem Hospital and as an associate professor at Columbia University, you continue to fight illness, to prevent its spread within a vulnerable community, and to serve as a conscience for your profession and for society at large. In an often-cited article in the New England Journal of Medicine, you drew attention to the fact that “black men in Harlem were less likely to reach the age of 65 than men in Bangladesh.” And that article, as one commentator has noted, “turned a domestic embarrassment into an international disgrace.” For your distinguished achievement in more than 20 years of promoting health among the world’s most vulnerable peoples, Williams College is proud to present you with its Bicentennial Medal.