Necrology

John Manning Driscoll, Jr. '58

Mar. 15, 1937-Sep. 9, 2022

John Manning Driscoll, Jr. ’58, P’88 died at his home in Oradell, N.J., on Sept. 9, 2022. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on March 15, 1937, he grew up in Manhasset and came to Hamilton from St. Mary’s High School. On the Hill, he was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity and majored in biology.

John threw himself into numerous extracurricular activities. He played on the basketball team all four years and was elected co-captain as a senior; he also discovered lacrosse, played it all four years, and again was elected co-captain in his final year. Not surprisingly, he was a member of the Block “H” Club throughout his time at Hamilton.

But there was more: he was elected to the Doers & Thinkers honor society as a sophomore, Was Los as a junior, and Pentagon as a senior. He was president of his class in both his sophomore and senior years, and served on the Student Council as a sophomore and on the Student Senate as a senior. He chaired the Rushing Committee, was on the Judiciary Committee, and helped with the Campus Fund. Throughout his time on the Hill, John was also a member of the Newman Club. Unsurprisingly for all this activity, he was included in Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities in his senior year.

From Hamilton, John went to the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University on a U.S. Navy scholarship. After completing his medical degree in 1962, he did his residency at the University of Pittsburgh’s Children’s Hospital. There he met Yvonne Thiel, a fellow resident in pediatric medicine, and they married on June 27, 1964, in Aliquippa, Pa. They had six children.

In 1966, the Navy dispatched John to Quang Tin Province, Vietnam, but not before he briefly went AWOL from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio to Washington, D.C.: he wanted to visit Yvonne after the birth of their second child, while she was completing her residency at Children’s National Hospital. In Vietnam, John oversaw the construction of a new hospital and helped provide health care to more than 300,000 Vietnamese people who otherwise lacked medical services. John attained the rank of lieutenant commander and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his work.

Returning to civilian life in 1967 and after finishing his residency in pediatrics, John was appointed to the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York City and to the staff of The Babies Hospital of the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in 1971. He specialized in perinatal medicine and, in collaboration with numerous colleagues, broke new ground in the care of premature and high-risk infants. His work there led to the establishment of one of the first neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in the country, and he was appointed its director in 1973, a position he held until 1992. When the original NICU was replaced, it was named the John M. Driscoll, Jr. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in his honor. John also established and chaired the Neonatal Ethics Committee at The Babies Hospital, which he oversaw until 1996.

In 1992, John was named the Reuben S. Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics and chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons as well as director of the Pediatric Service of Babies and Children’s Hospital. Five years later, he was elected president of the medical board of Presbyterian Hospital and, following its merger with New York Hospital, was named president of the medical board for the combined hospitals. When The Babies Hospital became the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital in 2003, John played an important role in the construction of the new facility while continuing as president of its medical board, a position he held for almost four decades.

As a leader in the field of neonatology, John served as a member of the executive committee of the Perinatal Section of the American Society of Pediatrics from 1987 to 1995. He was a board member of the Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s Health and was a fellow in the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School.

He earned numerous awards for his work, including several outstanding teaching awards, a distinguished service award, and a distinguished alumni award from Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, the humanism in medicine award from the Arthur P. Gold Foundation, and “A Brighter Tomorrow for Our Children” award from the Hope and Heroes Foundation.

John took particular pride in receiving an honorary degree from Hamilton in 2001. The first paragraph of his Doctor of Humane Letters citation summarized the significance of his achievements: “Impressive advances have been made in recent years in neonatal care. Such conditions as exceedingly low birth weight and respiratory disorders once doomed the life of the newborn. Now they can be overcome through diagnosis and treatment interventions in neonatal intensive care units. As a pediatrician and national leader in the specialized field of neonatology, you have contributed immeasurably over the past 30 years to furthering these advances.”

After he stepped down from his administrative position in 2007, John remained on the faculty of the College of Physicians & Surgeons and continued his pediatric practice at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. He did take a short sabbatical to study medical ethics as a fellow in the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, after completing an intensive bioethics course at Georgetown University.

Even in this period, his contributions continued to be honored. Columbia established the John M. Driscoll M.D. Children’s Fund to provide support for young researchers in pediatrics and established an endowed professorship named for John and Yvonne as well.

Outside the world of medicine, John was a man of faith: he attended Mass almost every day and served on and chaired the Parish Council of St. Joseph’s Church of Oradell/New Milford, N.J. He also served on the Oradell Board of Health.

In addition to his work in medicine, John was a devoted alumnus of Hamilton. When he was given the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2011, the citation noted: “A perennial Annual Fund gift chair, you have been known to check class results on a daily basis and to call each classmate to solicit gifts. You served as a volunteer for several Hamilton capital campaigns, chaired your 50th reunion gift committee and continue to participate as a member of the Alumni Council.” One fact was missing: in 1959, as he was beginning medical school in North Carolina, John volunteered to be his class’s representative. He was a Hamilton volunteer from day one. When he received the award, he said: “The College had a great influence on starting me on this journey and prepared me for the challenges that I would face. It played a crucial role in my formation as a person and, without that formation, I truly believe that I would not have become the person I am today. I am forever grateful to my teachers and my classmates for having such a powerful influence on my life. Hopefully in my achievements, whatever they are, I have given back both to my college and to my friends in a grateful manner for all that they did for me.”

John M. Driscoll, Jr. is survived by his wife, six children, including John M. Driscoll III ’88, daughter-in-law Katherine M. Scovin Driscoll ’97, and cousin James W. Connolly ’74.

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