Delford L. Stickel, MD, professor emeritus in the Department of Surgery, passed away on May 11, 2015. Dr. Stickel was a nationally-renowned surgeon who in 1965 performed the first kidney transplant in North Carolina and at Duke.
Dr. Stickel received his undergraduate and MD degrees from Duke University. He served in the United States Navy after medical school before returning to Duke in 1953 to complete an internship in internal medicine in 1954 and residency in general and thoracic surgery in 1962. He joined the faculty of Duke in 1962 as assistant professor. Throughout his many years of service to Duke, Dr. Stickel assumed important leadership roles including director of postgraduate medical education for the School of Medicine, associate medical director of Duke University Hospital, and chief of surgery and chief of staff at the Durham VA Medical Center.
Dr. Stickel was the driving force behind North Carolina’s passage of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which established that individuals could donate their organs. He also worked with neurologists and neurosurgeons to redefine the traditional concept of death to include brain death, which transformed organ donation and organ transplantation and led to uniform national and international criteria.
A memorial service will be held at Watts Street Baptist Church at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 14. Visitation will follow in the church fellowship hall.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Watts Street Baptist Church, 800 Watts Street, Durham, NC 27701 or to the Del Stickel Abdominal Transplant Fellowship Education and Research Fund, Attn: Lindon Pearson, DUMC Box 3704, Durham, NC 27710. Checks should be made to Duke University, in the memo line: Department of Surgery, In memory of Del Stickel. Donations will be used to support basic and clinical research of students, residents and fellows pursuing significant scientific advances in the field of organ preservation and transplantation.