HOUSTON – Feb. 28, 2022 – The Harris County Medical Society (HCMS) and the Houston Academy of Medicine (HAM) named Augustus A. White, III, MD, PhD, as the winner of the John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award during the HCMS/HAM Installation of Officers & Leadership Recognition ceremony held Feb. 25, 2022.

This annual national award, named after its first recipient, John P. McGovern, recognizes the physician who embodies the ideals of Sir William Osler -- medical excellence, humane and ethical care, commitment to medical humanities and writing, research, and harmony between the academic and medical practitioner.

Dr. White’s commitment to excellence is demonstrated by his continued contributions to the field of orthopedics. Throughout his more than 60-year career, Dr. White has excelled as a teacher, mentor, and humanitarian caregiver.

After graduating from Brown University with high honors, he attended medical school at Stanford University where he was the first African-American to graduate. He completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at Presbyterian Medical Center in San Francisco; Newington Children’s Hospital in Newington, Conn.; Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Veterans Administration Hospital in New Haven, Conn. He went on to serve in the Army in Vietnam. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his service during a mountain side rescue of a U.S. soldier with a fractured hip.

Dr. White has made significant contributions to academic orthopedics. He co-founded two orthopedic biomechanics laboratories at Yale University School of Medicine and at Harvard Medical School. Additionally, he created the first academic orthopedic department at Harvard Medical School. Throughout his career, Dr. White’s focus has been on humanitarian patient care and concern for social justice, including writing several books highlighting the disparities in healthcare. In July 2020, the Augustus A. White, III Institute for Healthcare Equity was established with the mission of ensuring “equitable care to minority communities through communicating and mobilizing best practices across the healthcare ecosystem.”

Past recipients of the Award are Dr. Raymond Scalettar (1994), Dr. Ernest W. Johnson (1995), Dr. Donald W. Chapman (1996), Dr. Theodore E. Woodward (1997), Dr. Charles D. Sherman (1998), Dr. Michael E. DeBakey (1999), Dr. Victor A. McKusick (2000), Dr. W. Walter Menninger (2001), Dr. Robert L. DuPont (2002), Dr. Denton A. Cooley (2003), Dr. John P. Strong (2004), Dr. John P. Bilezikian (2005), Dr. Kathleen M. Foley (2006), Dr. Ralph E. Feigin (2007), Dr. Stanley Appell (2008), Dr. Richard J. O’Reilly (2009), Dr. Raymond H. Kaufman (2010), Dr. Dev A. GnanaDev (2011), Dr. Richard P. Wenzel (2012), Dr. Walter J. Pories (2013), Dr. Samuel L. Katz (2014), Dr. Allen B. Weisse (2015), Dr. William Schaffner (2016), Dr. Herbert L. Fred (2017), Dr. David K.C. Cooper (2018), Dr. Frederick Grover (2019), Dr. Richard A. Williams (2020), Dr. Stephen B. Greenberg (2021). About HCMS