In Memoriam: Dr. George Meyer was accomplished radiologist

FFRF Lifetime Member Dr. George John Meyer, 91, died July 4, in hospice care at John Knox Village in Pompano Beach, Fla.

George was born in Bristol, Conn., on May 25, 1927. He was salutatorian of his graduating class at Bristol High School, where he was an outstanding scholar, athlete and student leader. Near the end of World War II, George volunteered to serve in the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps. In 1948 George graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Tufts College. After he received his M.D. degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1952, he fulfilled a one-year internship at North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, N.C., followed by five years of family medical practice in and near High Point, N.C. He then spent three years of further training as a resident physician in radiology at the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital. In 1961, he joined the staff of Holy Cross Hospital in Fort Lauderdale where he worked for 30 years and was chairman of the radiology department for several years. Along with Dr. Robert Conti, he founded and presided over Meyer and Conti, which later became Radiologists of North Fort Lauderdale, a 13-man group providing expert care to the patients of Holy Cross Hospital.

Dr. Meyer was a diplomat of the American Board of Radiology and a life member of the American College of Radiology. In 1969, he initiated, organized and chaired the Stop Smoking! clinics in Broward County.

In the 1980s, he worked with Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) to help spread awareness of the world-wide catastrophic dangers of nuclear weapons. In 1985 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) received the Nobel Peace Prize, and PSR was the USA affiliate of IPPNW. That achievement was probably his most cherished professional accomplishment.

Although raised in a fundamentalist Lutheran household, his extensive scientific studies and readings directed him, in later life, to abandon the tenets and myths of organized religions and to adopt rational secular humanistic principles. He was a life member of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and American Humanist Association.