Richard Root

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Dr. Richard K. Root (1938 – March 19, 2006) was a clinical teacher at the University of Washington Medical Center and former chief of medicine at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. He launched the infectious disease division at the University of Pennsylvania while a professor there in 1971.

After leaving the University of Pennsylvania, Root worked on infectious diseases at Yale University and served as vice chairman of medicine. In 1982 he was voted medical school teacher of the year. He became chief of medicine at Harborview 1991 and became an emeritus professor in 2002. He was a former president of the American Federation of Clinical Research, editor in chief of a textbook, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and, from 1986 to 1991, director of the National Institutes of Health's AIDS Advisory Committee.

Root received his MD from Johns Hopkins University in 1963. Residency and Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1963-1965. Chief Resident and Instructor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Washington from 1968-1969.

He moved to Botswana early in March 2006 to help alleviate Africa's shortage of doctors and nurses. He died from a crocodile attack while on a wildlife tour of the Limpopo River when a crocodile pulled him from a dugout canoe.

[edit] References

• Paulson, Tom (21 March 2006). "Top UW doctor killed by crocodile in Africa". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 
• Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — Info on Richard Root at the University of Washington