Dr. T. Joseph (Joe) Reeves, M.D. died on Saturday, April 21st after a long and painful battle with Parkinson’s Disease. Dr. Reeves, a native of Waco, Texas, was born April 22, 1923 to Thomas Jefferson Reeves and Ruth Scott Reeves, both of pioneer Texas families. He attended Waco public schools, graduating from Waco High School in 1940. Subsequently, he attended Baylor University in Waco and completed a pre-medical course of study until he was inducted into the US Naval Reserve in 1943, serving on active duty in the USNR V-12 program for freshman medical officers, training at Baylor College of Medicine. He received his M.D. at the age of 21. He married Eleanor Nash (Miss Ellie) of Waco, Texas in 1944 and always regarded this as his greatest achievement.
Following an internship at Parkland Memorial Hospital Dallas, he returned to active duty, serving as a medical officer and flight surgeon. After discharge from USNR, he completed residency training at Parkland Hospital Dallas and Cardiology Research Fellowships at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, AL. His mentor was Dr. Tinsley R. Harrison.
Dr. Reeves was one of the pioneer faculty members of the University Of Alabama College Of Medicine, serving as Assistant Professor of Medicine, Associates Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Physiology, Professor of Medicine, and was the founding director of the famed cardiovascular research and training center of that medical school.
Ultimately, Dr. Reeves became chairman of the Department of Medicine and Physician in Chief of the University of Alabama Hospital. During the nearly two decades of his distinguished academic career, Dr. Reeves contributed significant research in 3 areas of cardiovascular medicine: Exercise physiology and exercise testing, the natural history of coronary heart disease, the primary determinants of survival of persons with this disorder, and the physiology of cardiac muscle contractions, as defined by the time derivative of the tension developed during isometric contractions. He also helped to define measurements of myocardial contractility.
His contributions in these areas of clinical investigations were recognized by the American Heart Association when, in 1984, Dr. Reeves was awarded the James B. Herrick Award and medal for ‘contributions profoundly affecting the practice of Medicine.” This award is recognized as one of the highest honors bestowed upon a clinical cardiologist by his peers and is awarded to only one cardiologist each year.
In 1991 he was the recipient of the J.C. Craeger Award, given by the American Heart Association.
In the course of a brilliant academic career, Dr. Reeves received many other prestigious honors including the “Distinguished Fellowship Award of the American College of Cardiology”, given to only one of the 2000 Fellows of the College each year.
Dr. Reeves was elected to fellowships in the most prestigious Research Societies in American medicine including the American Society for Clinical Investigators (the Young Turks) and the Association of American Physicians (the Old Turks), the American Clinical and Climatological Society and the American Physiological Society. He was also recognized as a distinguished clinician by election into the Southeastern Clinical Association and the Texas Club of Cardiology.
He authored or co-authored more than 100 research reports and editorial boards of distinguished journals. He was an editor of the Yearbook of Cardiology and of the cardiovascular section of the Yearbook of Medicine for a number of years. One of his most noteworthy achievements was to co-author with the late Tinsley R. Harrison an outstanding book, Principles and Problems of Ischemic Heart Disease at a time in the development of clinical cardiology when treadmills exercise testing and coronary arteriography were in their infancy. Coronary care units were still rare in community hospitals and treatments still rudimentary.
Perhaps the award most cherished by Dr. Reeves was the plaque presented to him by his house staff (interns, residents, and fellows) at the end of his last year as the Chief of Medicine at the University of Alabama which reads: “T. Joseph Reeves, M.D. - Physician, Teacher, Philosopher, Friend – Your combined wisdom, humanity, perception, and fairness has profoundly influenced us all. Our lives will long bear your mark. From the 1972-1973 House Staff.
Following his retirement from academic medicine, Dr. Reeves returned to Texas to fulfill his childhood ambition to practice medicine in a relatively small city where he could get to know his patients and their families and to follow them as their doctor for many years.
He and his wife, Ellie, settled in Beaumont, Texas, where he served as co-director of the cardiac laboratories of St. Elizabeth Hospital and was the founder of the EKG laboratory of the hospital, serving as medical director for nearly 30 years.
While serving St. Elizabeth in this capacity, he functioned as a “front line” cardiologist, personally supervising 10’s of thousands of maximal treadmill tests. A source of great satisfaction for Dr. Reeves was the fact that he had NO deaths during the conduct of these tests and that he was personally in the laboratory for all stress testing.
Dr. Reeves personally trained the sonographers in the non-invasive laboratories of St. Elizabeth Hospital and interpreted thousands of echocardiograms.
He introduced exercise echocardiography to Southeast Texas, supervising and interpreting results himself.
As co-director of the Heart Catheterization Laboratories for more than 20 years, Dr. Reeves personally carried out several thousand left and right heart catheterizations, angiocardiograms, coronary angiograms, and coronary angioplasties.
During this time he was always on call for his in-patients and out-patients, taking his own night calls and often returning to the hospital. He put into daily practice those principles of care and preventive medicine that he had cherished during his academic life. He also continued to participate in national medical affairs and served as a trustee of the American College of Cardiology for 2 terms. He served on many national task forces and committees including international committees. He was one of the members of a team named by President Nixon to develop a collaborative research program with the Soviet Union as one of the first steps in Détente.
During these private practice years, he gave named lectures including the “Laennec Lecture” of the American Heart Association and gave a series of lectures in Amsterdam, East Germany, and Finland.
In his later years of private practice in Beaumont, Dr. Reeves returned to his interest in medical education and research, serving as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, the University of Texas Center Houston, and the Baylor College of Medicine Houston from 1973 until his retirement in 2000.
Dr. Reeves was preceded in death by his beloved wife of 62 years, Miss Ellie; and by his sister, Dorothy Reeves Kelly. He is survived by his children, Linda Reeves Wielchowsky and her husband Chuck of Houston Texas, Joseph Michael “Mike” Reeves and his wife Susan of Cropwell, Alabama, David Nash Scott Reeves and his wife Shelley of Houston Texas; five grandchildren, Lauren Reeves Flink and her husband Chris currently living in New York, Skylar Brooke Reeves of Atlanta Georgia, Lindsay Elizabeth Wielchowsky of Austin, Texas, Thomas Reeves Wielchowsky currently living in Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Joseph Nash Ryan Reeves of Houston; one great-grandchild, Truitt Eleanor Flink; his brother, James F. Reeves of Waco Texas; his brother-in-law, Floyd Kelly of The Woodlands Texas, His family would like to thank Pete St. Claire, Dorothy Kirkwood, Carolyn Collins, Edith Hardin, Linda Guidry, and Betty Bell for their love and support during this time. They also offer thanks to the nurses of Odyssey in both Houston and Beaumont who helped so much during these final days and also the doctors from Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital who were so caring and generous with their time.
Funeral service will be 2:00 pm. Thursday, April 26, 2007 at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Beaumont, Texas under the direction of Broussard’s, 2000 McFaddin, Beaumont. A gathering of family and friends will be from 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, 2007 and 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. Thursday at the church.
Memorial contributions may be made in memory of Dr. T. Joseph Reeves to the UBA Department of Medicine, 1530 3rd Avenue South, BDB 487 Att: Virginia Loftin, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-0012.
To send condolences and additional information, www.broussardsmortuary.com.
