President-elect, American Medical Association
1963
Citation:
Nineteen hundred years ago Aulus Cornelius Celsus said that "...a surgeon should be youthful or at any rate nearer youth than old age; with a strong and steady hand, which never trembles; with vision sharp and clear, and spirit undaunted; filled with fellow feeling for his patient because he wants to see his health restored." (Celsus, On Medicine, Bk. VII, poem) Today, as at the beginning of the Christian era, the surgeon needs special physical, mental, and personal characteristics. Dr. Edward R. Annis possesses them in an outstanding degree. One of our alumni, having taken his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Detroit in 1933, Dr. Annis received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Marquette University and has practiced medicine in Florida for two and a half decades. The degree of his surgical competence is evidenced by the ten years he served as chief of the Department of General Surgery at Mercy Hospital, Miami. This competence has been recognized, too, by the American Medical Association, which last June named him President-elect of its 189,000 member organization. He assumes that office in a few days. Dr. Annis has fellow feeling not only for his own patients but especially for those who cannot afford medical help, as appears from his terms as Director of Family Service and Senior Citizens' Division of the Welfare Planning Council of Miami. For this and similar community services Dr. Annis was awarded the Brotherhood medal of the National Council of Christians and Jews in 1958 and the Florida State Medical Association's award for "Outstanding Community Service by a Physician" in 1961. The University of Detroit is proud that this her son has been the type of man and surgeon to merit these honors, and wishes to add another laurel to the crown. Reverend President, I have the honor of presenting Edward R. Annis on this 30th anniversary of his graduation from the University of Detroit for the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science. Commencement, University of Detroit, June 13, 1963.