Dr. Merlin K. "Monte" DuVal, founding dean of University of Arizona College of Medicine, former surgeon, federal official, and health-care advocate, died Tuesday, Dec. 5., at the age of 84.

Dr. DuVal, a graduate of Dartmouth and Cornell medical schools and a Navy veteran, served as president and chief executive officer of the National Center for Health Education in San Francisco from 1979 to 1982; president and CEO of Associated Hospital Systems/American Healthcare Institute in Phoenix and Washington, D.C., from 1982 to 1988; and senior vice president for medical affairs at Samaritan Health Services in Phoenix from 1988 until his retirement in 1990.

Active in his retirement, Dr. DuVal was among those who urged the establishment of a medical school in downtown Phoenix, and was recognized by Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon at the opening of the UA College of Medicine-Phoenix in October 2006, which he attended.

Dr. DuVal arrived in Tucson in January 1964 as founding dean of The University of Arizona College of Medicine, establishing Arizona's first MD- granting college and helping to start the UA Teaching Hospital (now University Medical Center).

In 1971, Dr. DuVal was nominated to serve as assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. His two-year tenure in Washington was marked by the fact that he was the first federal official to formally warn the public about the dangers of smoking, and by his role in shutting down the notorious Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

In 1973, Dr. DuVal returned to the UA, where he served as acting dean of the College of Medicine until 1974 and vice president for health sciences until 1979.

Over the course of his life, Dr. DuVal was recognized with nine honorary degrees and fellowships and numerous awards for scholarship and public and community service. In 1987, the Arizona Health Sciences Center auditorium was designated "Merlin K. DuVal Auditorium" in his honor, and plans were recently underway by UA faculty to nominate Dr. DuVal for an honorary doctorate.

A memorial service will be held at Arizona Health Sciences Center DuVal auditorium in Tucson on Dec. 16. In lieu of flowers, the family has established a fund to benefit Med-Start, a UA College of Medicine program established by Dr. DuVal that encourages ethnic minorities, disadvantaged, rural, and non-traditional students to pursue careers in the health professions. Checks may be made out to the UA Foundation/Med-Start, College of Medicine Development Office, PO Box 245018, Tucson, AZ 85724-5018.

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For more information:

"UA medicine's founding dean dies at 84," 12/06/2006, UA News